Anthurium Care and Growing Tips for the Home

Anthurium, also known as flamingo flower, is a perennial evergreen herbaceous plant of the Araceae family. Its leaf stalks are slender, and its spathes extend horizontally, egg-heart-shaped, leathery with a waxy sheen, orange-red or scarlet, and it can bloom continuously all year round, making it highly ornamental. The following are home flower-growing tips: how to grow anthurium.

1. Soil selection

For home growing, you can buy ready-mixed potting soil directly from a garden store. After getting it home, add a small amount of expanded clay pebbles or dry bark to the potting soil you bought. Expanded clay pebbles : dry bark = 2:1. However, the soil used to grow anthurium must maintain good permeability and good drainage.

The soil must be disinfected before planting, but if you are using a dedicated soil, you can skip this step. Disinfection is to give the anthurium a smaller chance of suffering from pests and diseases in the later stages of growth.

2. Temperature requirements

The most suitable growing temperature for anthurium is 14~35°C. In winter, when the temperature is below 10°C, the anthurium is prone to frost damage, so increase the temperature promptly. In summer, when the temperature is above 35°C, sprinkle water around the anthurium to cool it down.

3. How to fertilize

Anthurium likes fertilizer and has a higher demand for magnesium fertilizer, so it is best to go to a professional flower shop and buy a foliar fertilizer with a relatively high magnesium content to use alongside it. Or choose a water-soluble compound fertilizer and dilute it into a liquid fertilizer to feed the anthurium. During the growing period, spray once a week. When fertilizing, stick to the principle of “light fertilizer, applied frequently” - better less than more, since too much can directly burn the seedlings~

4. Watering schedule

Watering anthurium needs to be done according to how dry the potting soil is. According to the pattern summarized by flower growers, in spring and autumn we water once every three days. In summer, once every two days, and in summer take care to use a sprayer to mist the leaves at noon to increase humidity. In winter, watering once every 5~7 days is enough.

When the weather is cold, water between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. When watering, take care to alternate between dry and wet, and avoid watering when the plant is severely short of water, as this affects the growth and development of the anthurium.

5. Take care to control humidity

High temperature and high humidity is the environment anthurium likes. Humidity is related to temperature; when the room temperature is above 28°C, we need to manually increase indoor humidity. You can use a humidifier or sprinkle water to raise humidity. When the temperature is below 20°C, just maintain the indoor humidity level, and there is no need to water.

In winter, even if the indoor temperature is relatively high, it is best not to cool and moisten too much. If the leaves of the plant are too wet at night, it will reduce its ability to resist the cold, causing frost damage and making it harder to get through the winter.

6. Prevention and control of pests and diseases

The pests that most often occur on anthurium are spider mites, nematodes, cabbage caterpillars, whiteflies, thrips, snails, and scale insects, among which spider mites, nematodes, and cabbage caterpillars are especially common. However, anthurium is very sensitive to insecticides, so if insecticides must be used, it is best to choose low concentrations. One thing to pay special attention to is that any pesticide containing copper, such as dimethoate, dichlorvos, malathion, parathion, methamidophos, etc., will be toxic to anthurium, so it is best not to use them.

7. How to prune

To keep the anthurium from consuming too much energy, we should promptly cut off dead branches and remaining stubs during the anthurium's growing period. As for the pruning technique for anthurium, there is a saying of “three adjustments and two cuts”, namely adjusting direction, adjusting the plant, cutting suckers, cutting flower buds, and cutting old flowers.