Q: I recently adopted a pink Anthurium from a friend. The plant is about 2-3 years old and isn’t doing so well with the leaves are curling from the tip. I don’t think it has flowered in some time and it falls to one side.
There is a main plant and a secondary plant. The plant has lots of leaves but I’m not too sure how to care for it properly. I have repotted it in potting mix but don’t know whether to trim the foliage. Please help me, I desperately want this plant to be happy! Thanks. Michelle – Red Hill
A: We’ll get your anthurium happy and smiling again, no worries.
To make things easy for you, I am giving you a step by step guide for you to follow. Pardon me for being so basic in my approach. It is purely because I am not sure how conversant you are with horticultural practices.
- Remove your anthurium from the pot altogether. Split apart the main plant and the secondary plant, and let’s make two plants whilst we are about it. Just pull them apart … they will separate easily. They will be steadier in your two pots when you re-plant them, and will not ‘fall to one side’ as the whole plant is doing at present.
- Give the two plants a good shake, get rid of the potting mix attached to their roots and then trim the roots down by approximately 30%. WHAAAT …. did you say that just then? Don’t worry … just give the roots a good haircut.
- Remove any foliage that is curling or even partly dried up. Make certain that you remove those leaves from right down at the bases of the plants. Remove any other dead material from the bases of the plants.
- I am always suspicious of potting mixes sold in the open market. It is sad, but many potting mixes that are available to the householder in bags are of poor quality and are really not good plant growing media. So … let us next improve your potting mix.
- Mix your potting mix with about 25% good compost. NO … don’t go buying the compost. Again … I am yet to come across good, proper compost being sold to the householder! Ask around amongst your friends, for I am sure at least one of them will have a pile of rotting grass or leaves in a corner of their own garden somewhere. THAT would be the best place to go. Get some of the rotted material from the bottom of the pile, and mix that in with your potting mix.
- The size of the pot needs to be in proportion to the size of your plant. However, since you are splitting the main plant into two, I am presuming that the size of your present pot should suffice.
- We now have TWO pots to fill, don’t forget. Hopefully you have some potting mix left over in the bag, when you bought some for your original potting when you adopted this plant. If not, I am afraid you will need to buy a bit more. Whatever potting material you buy, still mix it with some good compost in the ratio of 25% compost and 75% potting mix. Give the lot a really good mix so that the compost is evenly distributed throughout your potting mix. Add some water in the process of mixing so that your final mix is moist – NOT wet, just moist.
- Fill up your pots to approximately 100mm from the top of the pot. Spread about a dessert spoonful of any general purpose fertilizer evenly on the surface, and just dibble it into the top 50mm of the potting mix. Then cover this with another 25mm layer of your mix.
- Plant up, by spreading the roots of your anthurium on the surface of the mix, and then filling up the sides with more mix. Fill right up to the top of the pot and a wee bit more, give the whole pot a vigorous shake, and thump it on the ground lightly. The entire mix will settle a bit, probably leaving a gap of 15-25mm between the edge of the pot and the surface of the mix. Good, for that is what is required. Now give the plants a really good soaking. No more watering for at least three weeks. Thereafter, watering once a week will suffice.
- Get yourself a packet of liquid fertilizer … Thrive, Phostrogen or the like, and follow the instructions on the packet. You could start liquid fertilizing about three months after your above replanting operation.
- Anthuriums like dappled light in their natural growing conditions. That is difficult to replicate within a house or on a verandah. You will get excellent results, however, if you place them in such a position where they get plenty of light without direct sunlight the whole day, OR a position with morning sunlight, and shade in the afternoon.
Anthuriums are fairly slow growers, but being a mature plant that you will be splitting up, your main plant should start flowering within 6 months … AND, you and the anthurium will be happy once again!
