Features of planting anthurium and caring for it at home

Do you want to create an exotic corner in your apartment? Planting anthurium at home and further caring for this flower will require a lot of work, but beauty will pay off all the trouble. What other houseplant blooms for 3 months and pleases you with an absolutely fantastic flower shape? A long ear, wrapped in a fancy blanket, peeps out of the receptacle. Thanks to the work of breeders, anthurium amazes with a variety of varieties and colors. They even managed to shape the cob into a loop, with a heart-shaped blanket around the twisted rod. It is best to grow tropical flowers in greenhouses where a suitable microclimate can be created for them, or in closed arboretums.

Flower propagation

If you want to purchase a finished plant, carefully consider the selected specimen. Leaves should be free from damage and spots, with a smooth shiny surface. Healthy plants should not have brown spots on the leaf covering the cobs. After purchasing, keep the flower on a windowsill where it will live permanently for 2 days and provide it with a humid atmosphere and good care. On the third day, it is imperative to plant the anthurium in fresh soil: a pot of store soil is not intended for long-term cultivation at home.

You can propagate a flower by dividing the bush. When transplanting, remove the plant from the vessel, shake its roots from the ground. Very carefully with your hands separate the stem with part of the root system from the main plant. Do not use knives or other sharp tools for work: after cuts, the anthurium is sick for a long time and may die. Before planting a new flower, dip its underground part in a growth stimulator.

You can cut off the top of the shoot with air roots and grow a new flower from it. This technique is often used at home, when the plant is many years old and its leaves and flowers, despite good care, become small. If the roots are sufficiently developed, you can immediately plant the flower in a pot of soil, and if they are just about to hatch, put the shoot in warm water for germination. The temperature of the liquid should not be higher than 20⁰, otherwise the lower part will start to rot. You don't need to use a jar of water, but wrap the lower part of the stem with wet moss in advance. When you see the shoots of the roots breaking through, cut the cutting off, sprinkle the wound with crushed coal and plant it in the ground.

If you wish, you can try to get and germinate seeds. The flower will have to be pollinated artificially, with a brush, then wait for the fruit to appear and collect the grains. The seed is kept for 2 hours in a pale pink solution of potassium permanganate, and then sown in the ground. Seedlings will have to wait about 2 months, and flowers - 4 years.

Advice

Anthurium has a poisonous sap that irritates the skin and mucous membranes. Wear gloves when handling the flower and do not touch your eyes or lips until you wash your hands.

Take a short, wide pot and fill it 1/3 full with drainage material. Place the roots of the anthurium on top and start filling the vessel with soil. The roots of the plant are very fragile; you need to carefully compact the ground. Add a small layer, moisten and shake slightly so that there are no voids. The soil should be loose, well permeable to air and moisture, with an acidity (pH) of 5.5 to 6.5.

It is better to purchase a special mixture for anthuriums or orchids in flower shops, but you can mix:

• humus - 4 parts;
• peat - 2 parts;
• leaf land - 2 parts;
• sand - 1 part.

Add crushed charcoal, fragments of cones, moss to the mixture - up to 15% by volume.After planting, the flower must be watered abundantly and after 15 minutes, drain the excess liquid from the pan. Spray the leaves with warm water and keep the plant in the shade for several days. Until the flower takes root, give it proper home care and spray more often.

Advice

Better to grow anthurium in plastic flower pots. This material keeps heat well, the soil in it remains warm for a long time at night, and does not heat up much during the day.

Conditions of keeping anthurium

The southern guest is very picky about the conditions of his stay, but he will thank him for his caring care with extraordinary flowering. The plant needs good lighting, but hot sun is contraindicated. If in the middle of the day the rays hit the window, shade the flower from burns. In the winter months at home, it is advisable to illuminate the plants with lamps with a predominance of the blue and red spectrum. In summer, the bushes develop well at temperatures from 20⁰ to 25⁰; in winter, cooler air is needed: 16-18⁰.

Anthurium needs high humidity. If your apartment is very dry, make life easier for both people and plants - install a humidifier. You can place the pot next to a bowl filled with sea pebbles and keep the pebbles damp at all times, or cover the soil with moss, which must be sprayed with a spray bottle as it dries.

In summer, make sure that the soil in the pot does not dry out, water with settled soft water. In winter, before watering, the topsoil should dry out to a depth of about 1 cm. The plant loves to be sprayed. Hard tap water is not suitable for this procedure, add a drop of vinegar to the liquid, wait a few minutes for the reaction to take place, and pour only the upper part without sediment into the spray bottle. The spray should only fall on the leaves, but not on the buds and flowers, on which stains appear from drops of liquid. In early spring, force the plant to invigorate: water it once with water at a temperature of about 45⁰. Such a procedure at home activates development after winter dormancy, and the anthurium will bloom more magnificently.

Proper care includes feeding. Don't let your pet overeat; excess nutrients are bad for them. It is especially dangerous to overdo it with mineral fertilizers. Use a special anthurium feed and strictly observe the dosage indicated in the instructions. You need to feed at home every 15 days, and spray the leaves with liquid fertilizer once a month.

Anthurium should be transplanted at least once every 2 years. If you are not going to separate part of the flower, take a pot 3-5 cm wider and 3 cm deeper than the previous one. Look at the drainage holes from time to time: if roots appear from there, replant, even if the time has not come. Remove the plant, gently shake off the old soil from the roots, divide the bush if necessary. Then proceed in the same way as when landing. Be attentive to your pet for several days, proper care at home will help him quickly settle down in a new place.

What is the exotic guest dissatisfied with?

The flower is very moody, but he himself will tell you what he does not like. Improper care is often the cause of problems. Look closely at all the changes in the appearance of the plant, and you will understand where you made mistakes. Anthurium loves moist air, but not swampy soil. If you notice black dots on the leaves, reduce watering and make sure there is no water in the pan. If blackening grows, the roots are struck by gray rot. Remove the plant from the soil, inspect the root system and remove rotting growth. Plant the flower in new soil and spill with a light pink potassium permanganate solution.

What else can a plant living at home complain about?

• The leaves curl, but the color does not change - there is not enough air humidity, spray the flower more often.
• The leaves curl up, and light spots appear on them - a sunburn. Apply anthurium or move it to another place.
• The leaves sag, the tips turn yellow or turn brown - the pot is standing in a draft, the room is cold or there are sudden temperature changes. Create a comfortable environment for the plant.
• The leaves become small, turn yellow, the bush does not bloom well - there is not enough nutrition, you need to transplant the flower into fresh soil.
• Lush greenery, but the plant does not bloom - too nutritious soil, transplant into a pot with less fertile soil and stop feeding for a month.

Pests can attack anthuriums:

• shield;
• aphid;
• spider mite;
• mealybug.

You can fight insects with the help of special insecticides. Do not place the pot too close to other plants to prevent the parasites from spreading to other flowers. Proper care will help to strengthen the flower's immunity, biostimulants will come in handy.

Output

Caring for anthurium at home takes time and effort. If you often leave for several days, forget to water and feed your green pets, it is better to plant more hardy and unpretentious plants on the windowsill. The main beauty of a tropical guest is during flowering, create suitable conditions for him so as not to be disappointed at the sight of a stunted rod with a stained bedspread.

It is best to grow anthurium in greenhouses. If this is not possible, purchase an indoor arboretum. You can keep the flower at home on the windowsill, but then you need to constantly monitor the temperature, humidity and illumination of the room. The overseas guest wants to show you all his splendor, help him get used to the new conditions.