DESCRIPTION: These plants are mainly from tropical America. They are grown for their brightly colored flower spathes or their ornamental leaves. Anthurium andraeanum is a native of Columbia that has orange-red spathes and large heart-shaped leaves. Anthurium crystallinum is native to Columbia and also Peru. Its flowers aren't as striking as the others, but it has large, velvety green leaves with contrasting silvery-white veins. The flowers grow during the spring and summer and they last a long time. A. scandens climbs somewhat, and produces greenish spathes and shiny white fruits, resembling berries, throughout most of the year.
A. Alpine
POTTING: These plants need a minimum temperature of 65 degrees and a moist atmosphere. Potting should be done early in the year, as soon as new roots begin to develop from the rootstock. The 6- to 7-inch pots should be filled half way with crocks. A suitable soil mixture for these plants is three parts orchid peat, one part leaf mold and one part sphagnum moss, with a scattering of coarse sand, crushed charcoal and broken brick. Keep the roots high in the pots so that when potting is finished the top of the compost is in the form of a mound above the rim of the pot. Each year, the rootstock elongates and produces roots at a higher level, the plants eventually become raised high above the rims of the pots. If a layer of moss is packed around the bare stems, the young roots will penetrate it and the plants can be cut off level with the rims of the pots and repotted in small pots. They need to be kept out of direct sunlight and the atmosphere should be humid. The soil should be kept moist in the summer, but in the winter it should only be watered when it is almost dry.
A.nevada
PROPAGATION: New plants are established by dividing the roots in February and potting the separated pieces. They should be kept in an enclosed glass case for a few weeks. Seeds may also be sown as soon as they have ripened, in shallow earthenware pans filled with chopped sphagnum moss, charcoal and sand. The seeds are scattered in the moss particles and the pan is covered with a piece of glass and placed in a propagating case.
VARIETIES:
A. alpine
A. andreanum;
A. clarinervium;
A. crystallinum,
A.nevada
A. scherzerianum;
A. scandens;
A. toscane
A. veitchii;
A. Xlilacina,.