My Creative Workbook

Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman

Anthurium

Anthuriums can be evergreen or bushy or climbing epiphytes. The inflorescence is a spadix with the uni-sexual blooms on a heart-shaped leathery spathe (a modified bract) on clean flexible stems with a length of fifteen to thirty centimeters. The spadix can take on many forms from club-shaped, tapered, and spiral to globe shaped. The leaves come in many shapes and the upper surface may be matte, semi-glossy, or fully glossy with a texture from leathery to fragile and papery.

The Floral Trends Design Group Old and New Demonstration

Common name

Anthurium, Tailflower, painters palette, Flamingo flower

Origin

Central and South America. Most species occur in Panama, Colombia, Brazil, Guiana Shield and Ecuador.

Varieties

More than 800 species are documented of which approximately 200 varieties are available in the cut flower industry.

Colors

There are several hundreds of colours available, including bi-colours and novelties. Anthuriums grown for the florist trade generally have a coloured spathe and spadix. The spadix can be white, green, purple, pink or a combination. The spathe may be single coloured- white, yellow, green. or multicoloured including burgundy and pure red. Anthurium berries range from red to black and may also be bi-coloured or shaded.

Vase life

Ranging from seven to twenty (or more!) days.

Scent

The flowers give off a variety of fragrances, each attracting a variety of specific pollinators

Uses

I enjoy using the glossy green foliage and the beautiful almost red roots in designs. The flowers are thirsty and prefer larger tubes or vases. I love the miniature Anthuriums.

Conditioning

Give the stem a fresh cut removing about four centimeters and place in deep fresh water and flower food.

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