The Anthurium craze and repotting Anthurium magnificum

[metalfan]

Frog on 'Big Splash'

[aussiearoids]

Some of my designer babies using only the best genes from papillilaminum dressleri & forgetii.

Its not just a FAD .

[metalfan]

I always love seeing your stuff Michael. I have 2 trays of Papi seedlings (mongrels LOL crossed with besseae x magnificum and AOS) and a spadix on the way right now that I crossed with Ecuagenera's besseae aff. This spring should be interesting. This is the besseae aff I used. Wish I had a dressleri but I am not that rich ha ha!

[akamu]

I was gifted this anthurium years ago from Phil at jungle music he called it species Ed Moore named after the garden it came from Ed Moore was an early member of the palm Society . Does this have another name 

[metalfan]

13 hours ago, akamu said:

I was gifted this anthurium years ago from Phil at jungle music he called it species Ed Moore named after the garden it came from Ed Moore was an early member of the palm Society . Does this have another name 

It looks like it could be Anthurium cubense to me. It is a pachynerium, a birdnest anthurium. My 2 best guesses would be cubense or salviniae. Others might chime in as well

[metalfan]

This is my A. cubense for comparison

[metalfan]

First seedling up on my cross of Anthurium (radicans x luxurians) x besseae aff. Everyone thinks rad x lux is sterile. Its not. 

[metalfan]

I just finished a comprehensive inventory of all of my Anthurium seedlings. Currently, I am growing about 1050 seedlings in various stages of development. This is one, a 'Mehani' seedling that is exhibiting unusual bullate leaves. The basic Anthurium 'Mehani' is already a hybrid...A. magnificum x [(radicans x luxurians) x crystallinum]. I further crossed this with A. besseae x magnificum.

[BigFrond]

This is a really interesting read.  I finally went through this thread.  Thanks to metalfan and pipping plovers I now know a little about these plants.  It is unbelieveable how expensive some of these plants are.  I may try one inside the house but do not want get hooked.  I also read about that fella who may have been the one to  lopped off a part of the plant at the SD botanical garden.  He also sold another plant for 17k when in reality it was worth about $300.  I will probably stick with philodendron because they are easier.

[metalfan]

@BigFrondits really difficult for someone like myself who started collecting plants years ago to understand how the prices of plants (aroids specifically but it has now extended to other genera, like Hoya, terrarium plants like Begonias and other stuff, etc) has skyrocketed. And how people are trying to pass readily available plants off as rare. I had to take a break from plants for highly personal reasons starting in 2012 and lasting until 2018/19. I had had 2 major debacles in my greenhouse....a heater failure that resulted in a massive loss of part of my collection, and then a water issue in which I lost more plants...while all this was going on. So when I went back out to 'reclaim' my plants and try to restart my hobby, I made a list of what I could actually remember that I had once owned with an eye to maybe replacing at least some of it. It was a total shock to me to see that a plant that I had paid perhaps $20 for in the early to mid-2000's or that I had traded for because they were so common people had extras to unload (like Philodendron Jose Buono, which I bought for $13 at a Botanical Garden sale back then)... now an unrooted CUTTING smaller than the rooted plant I bought sells for over $100. Sometimes a LOT more. It was also a shock to me to see the blow up of large plant communities on Facebook. It seems people left forums like THIS ONE which is such a quality place to join the masses of people on FB. Probably because they can sell there and because they can be less than civil there. Which goes on a whole lot. Yes, the flap about the Philodendron spiritus-sancti is a real black eye on the aroid community. So is the current trend of importing. There are of course reputable importers. But there are also disreputable ones and scamming and ripping off people in this 'NEW' plant community is rampant.

[realarch]

So, a couple more plants looking for an ID. I looked at the IAS datatabase and still wasn’t sure. Mine may still be to young for my untrained eye to identify. Mahalo.

Tim

[realarch]

OK, yet another one. There have seen similar looking species posted in this  thread, so I’m thinking this is some kind of birds nest anthurium. 

This one has been rather abused over the years and it finally found a home on a root boss of a Dypsis lutescens. 

Thanks again, 

Tim

[Marie Nock]

4 hours ago, realarch said:

OK, yet another one. There have seen similar looking species posted in this  thread, so I’m thinking this is some kind of birds nest anthurium. 

This one has been rather abused over the years and it finally found a home on a root boss of a Dypsis lutescens. 

Thanks again, 

Tim

This one may actually be an Anth. hookeri.  All too often any birdsnest anthurium is called hookeri but usually they are not.  You'll have to wait for an infloresence and if the seeds are white, it's hookeri.  The leaves are certainly broad enough.  I know it grows in the HIlo area.  

I just returned from a plant buying trip to Hilo and passed your beautiful garden every day as I was heading out.  I was staying with friends on Akolea Rd.

 

[metalfan]

OH MAN to get an actual HOOKERI is kind of like a dream. 

[realarch]

On 3/14/2022 at 1:28 PM, Marie Nock said:

This one may actually be an Anth. hookeri.  All too often any birdsnest anthurium is called hookeri but usually they are not.  You'll have to wait for an infloresence and if the seeds are white, it's hookeri.  The leaves are certainly broad enough.  I know it grows in the HIlo area.  

I just returned from a plant buying trip to Hilo and passed your beautiful garden every day as I was heading out.  I was staying with friends on Akolea Rd.

 

Thanks as always Marie. If you are ever in the neighborhood again, the welcome mat is always ready for foot traffic.

Tim

[metalfan]

I'm pretty excited. I finally got my Anthurium Red Crystallinum to make some berries. I got this plant in a trade with a pal from South FL a few years ago. I believe its origin is Tezula, the 'Dr. Block' hybrids of crystallinum, because I am not aware of any other red type crystallinums that did not originate with him (@Marie Nock, do you know?) Anyway, these plants retail from the originator for $1000 and up so I was pretty happy to get one as a trade. I have had absolutely dismal luck over the past few years trying to pollinate and get berries from my very old c2000/2001 or so regular crystallinum. I am not sure why. But all I get are blanks...it will make berries, but the seeds are clear and do not germinate.

Anyway, I was able to pollinate this Red Crystallinum with pollen most probably from the besseae AFF I got also in a trade which had its origin from Ecuagenera. I have been waiting and waiting to see how the spadix develops, and finally, the seeds are ripe and able to be sown, and they look normal and viable. So I guess time will tell what I get out of this hatch.  

[piping plovers]

2 hours ago, metalfan said:

I'm pretty excited. I finally got my Anthurium Red Crystallinum to make some berries.

Good news!  The first photo you posted, really beautiful colors on that leaf.

[metalfan]

I'm really pleased. I hope they do well. I also pollinated one of my very black papillilaminums with the besseae aff pollen and am harvesting the berries and sowing them now.

[Cindy Adair]

I just got back from picking up a bunch of Ecuagenera plants for a friend who will return to his PR second home in a few months.
 

Ecuagenera had a pop up sale at Clorofila (as in chlorophyll) a small indoor plant shop on a little side street in San Juan. 

A friend with extra space is going to pot them up and care for them (my shadehouse is full) but I did the driving. Only got lost twice as street signs (and stop signs and one way signs) seem completely optional in this area.

I preordered only two lower priced items and happily see that preordering saved me quite a bit.

There was a line waiting long before the shop opened at 11 and looks like they were still selling well when I left.
 

I have had good luck with aroids mostly from Marie Nock’s beauties and Ecuagenera and others from the Aroid show at Fairchild gardens over the years, but glad most purchases were before the huge jump in prices!

I am enjoying the posts here so please keep them coming! 
 

 

[aussiearoids]

Trays of potted on seedlings in new shadehouse .

[metalfan]

Cindy, if I buy from Ecuagenera, I always do it in person. I live 2 hours away so the drive isn;t that long, if I want to go, and they actually came to a garden fest we had here last fall. But their US prices are totally inflated compared to their Ecuador prices.  If I pre-ordered and picked up at their store, I could get things cheaper, but then I couldn;t pick the one I want. I have also noticed that things I was able to buy from them really inexpensively in person when they first opened in Apopka have jumped HUGELY in price. The Besseae AFF I have, which I am hoping will be described and given a real name soon LOL, I got in a trade...they are asking a whopping $250 for that. The Anthurium lutheri I got in a trade, they don;t even have right now but the last time they did even on the Ecuador site was over $200. They were selling A. metallicum for $45 when they first opened up here in FL, now several hundred. And they don;t even really do well here, its way too hot. All that said I still love that they are here, it makes it possible to get plants I would never have gotten. I've never met Marie, I know she is on here...my friend Mike has been to her place more than once and met her several times over the years at the IAS show... he shared a lovely plant he got from her with me, the entire leaf form of Lasia spinosa. I never travel farther down peninsula than the Tampa-Orlando line anymore.  I would love to see her place though. I have visited Barry Schwartz and hope to go back this year, he is an avid collector of plants ALL plants not just aroids. His collection is absolutely amazing.

[Marie Nock]

On 4/2/2022 at 7:58 AM, metalfan said:

I'm pretty excited. I finally got my Anthurium Red Crystallinum to make some berries. I got this plant in a trade with a pal from South FL a few years ago. I believe its origin is Tezula, the 'Dr. Block' hybrids of crystallinum, because I am not aware of any other red type crystallinums that did not originate with him (@Marie Nock, do you know?)

I'll share what I know but I'm sure it's not the whole story.  Years ago Tim Anderson owned a nursery called Palm Hammock.  He grew orchids, begonias, crotons and aroids.  He had an anthurium breeding program that resulted in Anthurium 'Wonder Boy' the first heart shaped velvet anthurium with red veins and reddish leaves that I'm aware of.  Jeff Block used 'Wonder Boy' in his breeding program to get the coloring but he also wanted larger leaves and he wanted to develop the perfect plant that he could name after his wife Michelle.  Bill Rotolante of Silver Krome Gardens has been making anthurium hybrids with red leaves as has Scott Cohen.  Tezula sells plants from Jeff. Bill and Scott so it would be difficult to know the origin of your plant.

I think Jeff Block is scheduled to talk at the Tropical Fern & Exotic Plant Society on April 25th at 7:15 pm and he'll be talking about his anthurium breeding program and some of the exceptional clones he has developed.  The meetings are free and open to the public.  They're held at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.

[metalfan]

Thank you Marie! All you ever hear about anymore when you see these red hybrids is 'Dr. Block hybrid'. I do remember Tim Anderson. As a 'not major player' on the aroid scene, I miss a lot. I was happy to get this plant in trade. It'll be cool to see what comes of these seeds

[Marie Nock]

On 4/3/2022 at 2:21 PM, metalfan said:

Thank you Marie! All you ever hear about anymore when you see these red hybrids is 'Dr. Block hybrid'. I do remember Tim Anderson. As a 'not major player' on the aroid scene, I miss a lot. I was happy to get this plant in trade. It'll be cool to see what comes of these seeds

Tim Anderson was kind of an unsung hero.  There was talk at the last IAS Show about establishing a Tim Anderson Award for the Best Anthurium Hybrid.  An offer was even made to underwrite it.  Don't know the status but it would be nice to shine a spotlight on Tim's contributions.

[metalfan]

I do remember his name from back then. I think that the younger generation in some cases have absolutely no idea who the people were in the past who made what they can now get possible. He definitely deserves recognition.

[realarch]

Yesterday I was gifted two Anthurium species, and like Sgt. Schultz, I know nothing! Thanks Mike Merritt for dropping them off.

The first has a tag, A. jenmanii and after looking at a few references, the ID looks to be correct. Here are a few photos. 

Tim

[realarch]

The second one came with an ID of A. ‘Black Flower’. I couldn’t find a match, so maybe somebody knows what it could be. 

Thanks……..Tim

 

[metalfan]

Black Flower looks like watermaliense

[realarch]

Thanks Gina, it does look like the correct ID. I like the pronounced upper lobes on the leaf.

Tim

[metalfan]

3 hours ago, realarch said:

Thanks Gina, it does look like the correct ID. I like the pronounced upper lobes on the leaf.

Tim

These are quite variable. Mine is really old, I got it before I built the greenhouse so before 2002...it isn;t quite that pronounced. Its unofficial name is the Black Flowered Anthurium

[realarch]

Gina, the one that was gifted to me is apparently very old as well and was given to Mike years ago. Must have been living in that pot for a long time. I’ll give a new lease on life with new medium. Thanks for all your responses too.

Tim

[metalfan]

13 hours ago, realarch said:

Gina, the one that was gifted to me is apparently very old as well and was given to Mike years ago. Must have been living in that pot for a long time. I’ll give a new lease on life with new medium. Thanks for all your responses too.

Tim

The old ones are the best IMO. Most of the things I have are 'old' and some manage to look quite different from what is being out out by TC houses now. I don;t know if you are familiar with Bill Rotolante at Silver Krome in So FL, we had a facebook discussion once on why our older clones look so much 'different' and truer to type than many of the plants being shown today. his answer was pricless, 'because the ones being made now are all watered down versions'. I just had to laugh, its true

[metalfan]

I think I may have pollinated a 2nd spadix on my Red Crystallinum! Currently harvesting and sowing seeds from the first spadix. I'm really hoping these do well, because I have never had ANY LUCK with seeds produced by my old regular crystllinum. They never germinate.

[piping plovers]

On 1/19/2022 at 8:10 AM, metalfan said:

But with veitchii, the form that Ecuagenera is calling the 'type' was definitely the FIRST. IMO they should be calling the narrow form the 'type'.

 

On 1/17/2022 at 10:10 PM, realarch said:

The second photo is maybe A. veitchiii, still small, but looks healthy.

Back to this veitchii conversation…two of my little veitchiis just put out new leaves. After 6 months, This is the first new leaf under my care that the ecuagenera A. veitchii type is putting out. The other is one I purchased from EBay, and was just called A. veitchii.  Would have been better to compare to the ecuagenera’s non-type veitchii but Sadly I killed the beautiful one they sent me last autumn.  Since these two are similar in development it will be interesting to watch them side by side.  

They have a long way to go before they look like the dramatic mature ones you each posted.

photo below:  ecuagenera’s veitchii ‘type’ on the left and the eBay veitchii on the right.

 

[metalfan]

Beautiful seedling I am raising. Obtained seed from Barry Schwatrz, plantsman extroidinaire, last season and have had several plants grow. This is the best one so far. Barry calls this plant 'Anthurium BLue Vevlet'. Its a magnificum hybrid of unknown origin, this one ***is probably*** further complicated in its genealogy by unknown pollen LOL. SO its a bench cross. I call it 'Barry's BLue Velvet'

[piping plovers]

The increasing daylight and warmth is stirring my indoor anthuriums.  The strap leaf ones (vittariifolium & pallidiflorum) produced leaves even through winter but the others, as expected, were resting.  
 

This A. crystallinum put out its first leaf since last autumn.  I really like crystallinum, out of the 15 or so species I purchased in my first year of collecting anthuriums —-these are my favorite.  So exotic and visually striking; a tropical look with an exclamation point!    

Even family and friends who are not that interested in plants will usually notice and ask about the crystallinum.

 

[metalfan]

Good work! Yeah I am getting new growth like CRAZY. HEY did you know? I was reading some plant nerd stuff (I do this all the time LOL) and finally got around to reading the 2020 paper by Delanny and Croat about the restructuring of the Anthurium section Leptanthurium which used to contain just a single species....gracile, but now includes I think 18 species (some newly described, like Anthurium lutheri) and also it now includes pallidiflorum and vittariifolium, which was moved in from Urospadix. They stated that lutheri is most closely related to pallidiflorum.

I got this new leaf on one of my luxurians popping out looking like its on FIRE, and a small offset of 'Mehani' that heretofore had leaves a little bigger than the size of a hand suddenly spit out a leaf about 4x bigger than any other leaf on the plant (you can see the edge of the big leaf in the 2nd photo) Clavigerum is spitting out new leaves all over the greenhouse, one of my Queens has a new leaf and lutheri has a nice new one

[Cindy Adair]

Lots of work/play recently to open up new planting areas also allows better views of existing aroids and palms from below.

Now 3-4 years in the ground from small plants, my aroids are growing much faster.

[piping plovers]

Thank you.  The greenhouse jungle is looking amazing.

On 4/20/2022 at 8:13 AM, metalfan said:

now includes pallidiflorum and vittariifolium, which was moved in from Urospadix. They stated that lutheri is most closely related to pallidiflorum.

Ah, always something new to learn.  My pallidiflorum has put on the largest leaf since I’ve had it, and this during the winter.  I’m really looking forward to the size of the  summer time leaves.  
 

On 4/20/2022 at 8:13 AM, metalfan said:

Clavigerum is spitting out new leaves all over the greenhouse,

I had to look up clavigerum,  yours is amazing.  So other-worldly, like a dr Seuss plant.  I’m getting tempted to buy more anthuriums even though I made myself stop. Too late, I found a veitchii I just had to have and asked that it be sent in original container so I could at least avoid the bare root stresses.  
 

It’s got a long way to go to look like yours and the one Cindi just posted below

3 hours ago, Cindy Adair said:

Now 3-4 years in the ground from small plants, my aroids are growing much faster.

__but it is by far the largest veitchii I ever owned.

…and now I’m seeing a clavigerum on Etsy.

 

[piping plovers]

4 hours ago, Cindy Adair said:

Lots of work/play recently to open up new planting areas also allows better views of existing aroids and palms from below.

Now 3-4 years in the ground from small plants, my aroids are growing much faster.

 

Nicely grown Cindi.  Are those Vietchiis actually growing in the ground?  I wouldn’t have expected that as I’m always thinking epiphytic with those; whatever you’re doing it’s definitely working well.