The genus Anthurium, from the family of Araceae, is very diverse. Foliage lovers go after the deeply veined massive leaf varieties like Anthurium Regale and Anthurium Clarinervium whereas the flowering plant lovers chase the spectacular attention-grabbing Anthurium andreanum.
Anthurium Amnicola care consists of keeping a high humidity level between 70% to 80%. Water the plant regularly about twice a week in the growing season to allow for an even soil moisture using a well-draining potting mix using peat, perlite, and bark. A temperature between 77 to 90°F (25 to 32°C) is considered optimal. Keep your Anthurium Amnicola in bright shade in terms of lighting.
I love them all, but the Anthurium Amnicola, also called Tulip Anthurium, is a meek little plant that is thoroughly fascinating in its own right.
I grow Anthurium Amnicola for the small green narrow elliptical leave blades and the most unusual monocot inflorescences. The narrow spathe is a subtle purple to lilac color often turned outwards and the spadix is just a short stump with a bruise-like deep maroon color!
They are great as indoor plants. With their compact growth habit, you can grow Anthurium Amnicola to give any space a wild and exotic touch, like everything that comes from its native region of Panama.
The varieties available commercially are often hybrids. If you follow the Anthurium Amnicola care guidelines you can keep the plant busy with flowers all year long.
Table of Contents
Anthurium Amnicola Care
ANTHURIUM AMNICOLA CARE GUIDE
Soil
You can grow Anthurium Amnicola in a wide range of soils or no soil at all. Anthurium potting mixes are readily available these days but you’ll soon discover that it is a lot cheaper to mix your own as long as you know the rules.
When you grow Anthurium Amnicola, root rot is a common cause of death. A lot depends on getting the soil proportions right. A potting mix that’s extremely porous but also has good water retention properties is what you need.
University of Florida Research Centre recommends mixtures such as 1:1:1 peat:perlite:bark or 1:1 peat:perlite or a medium of 2:1 peat:perlite as suitable mixes for Anthurium.
My main Anthurium Amnicola care hack is to throw in chunks of coconut shells, charcoal, brick bits, or even gravel.
Lava rock is another popular choice of medium to grow Anthurium Amnicola giving it a stunning Japanese Ikebana appearance.
All these options work really well in creating the river-side ambiance around its roots like in its native habitat.
Light
Anthurium Amnicola care requires 70-85% shading, in other words, consistent bright shade. If you want it to flower abundantly you need to experiment with lighting levels until you get it right. Plants that don’t receive this light tend to have lackluster flowers.
Direct exposure burns the leaves. You should grow Anthurium Amnicola under a shade cloth or under the share of a tree if you’ve chosen an outdoor spot for your plant.
My recommendation for Anthurium Amnicola care is to keep it indoors. A South-east window spot is a great location in the northern climatic zones.
This is a true tropical evergreen with a hunger for long days. Grow lights are a vital part of Anthurium Amnicola care winter essentials.
Watering
They are found growing on boulders along the rivers and are known to be thirsty little things. Also, being a flowering variety, this Anthurium isn’t drought tolerant.
As a general rule of thumb for Anthurium Amnicola care is even moisture with regular watering especially when they are actively growing.
That said, I have one note of precaution linked to the soil mix. If the soil is highly moisture-retentive, then a once-a-week cycle may be fine in summers.
Now, I’ve used a lot of clumpy bark and gravel in my soil to recreate riverside soil texture that barely holds water. Therefore in the growing months, my watering cycle is about twice-a-week.
By the way, you can even water this plant every day in summers as long as all the water drains out completely.
Now here’s an Anthurium Amnicola care hack that no one will tell you. If you have an aquarium, use the water of the aquarium on the water-change day. All that fish manure is like ambrosia for your plant. It really boosts flowers.
In winters, water sparingly using warm water.
Temperature
It must come as no surprise that the plant is warmth-loving. You’ll want to grow Anthurium Amnicola in day time temperatures ranging from 77 to 90°F (25 to 32°C). Yes! That’s pretty warm. Ideal night time temperatures are in the range of 70 to 75°F (21 to 24°C).
In the northern zones, they should be brought indoors for outwintering. If you grow Anthurium Amnicola in a greenhouse, it should be heated and well-ventilated avoiding draughty windows, and extreme temperature fluctuations.
The bare minimum temperature for survival is 60°F (15°C). The slightest frost means death for this plant.
Humidity
This plant is a sucker for humidity. If your indoor conditions are dry as the Sahara you can’t grow Anthurium Amnicola well. Feel free to use humidifiers, pebble trays, and occasional moist cloth wipes.
The humidity level in the 70% to 80% range works great for Anthurium Amnicola care.
On smart Anthurium Amnicola care hack is to place it in your bathroom or by the kitchen window. Not only does it add spunk to the décor, but it’s also perfect for humidity.
Fertilizer
Tulip Anthurium has its nutrition needs for optimum growth. But once the potting mix is well enriched with organic content, this really is the best form of feeding for this plant. In my experience, Anthurium Amnicola care needs little extra feeding. Less is more.
You may however use a well-balanced Orchid fertilizer to improve the flowering. Another option is to go for liquid fish fertilizer.
Basically, one that is rich in phosphorus, like a 5-10-5 works well to grow Anthurium Amnicola. You should dilute the fertilizer down to a quarter of the Rx strength and use it about twice a month.
Potential salt build-up from cheap chemical fertilizers can damage your plant, so you should regularly flush the entire root ball with thorough and deep watering.
I insist on organic feeds over chemical fertilizers, particularly for Anthurium Amnicola care because this plant does well with slow-release feeds.
Propagation
The propagation methods for Tulip Anthurium are pretty straight forward. The simplest way is to separate plantlets from the roots as and when they appear.
Root separation is also a reliable method to propagate Anthurium Amnicola.
Many professional nurserymen will save the seeds from the berries on the spadix to germinate them, but the environment has to be very precise otherwise the seeds simply rot away.
Growth
The main attraction of growing Anthurium Amnicola is its compact size with narrow leaves and flowers. The stems max out at a height of about 12 inches.
The plant is often hybridized with Anthurium Andraeanum to get many different flower colours. So when you buy an Amnicola the chances are that it’s a hybrid.
Pure-breed amnicola and hybrid amnicola can both generate up to 8 blooms per year, which is a generous number! The flowers tend to last for a few weeks at a time unless you cut them.
Potting
I recommend that you grow Anthurium Amnicola in a medium-depth, slightly wide pot. This plant produces offshoots readily, so a wider pot enables the plant to throw these plantlets freely.
I don’t repot until the roots look suffocated and stop drying out well enough. That’s about once in two years or so.
You have to simply pick up the plant from one planter and place it in the next, arranging the roots out widely.
At this stage, check for disease-causing fungus around the roots. If you find white powdery stuff in there you might want to replace the mix entirely.
Also, sterilize the old mix well before you reuse for another plant.
Supplementing the soil with organic matter or application of a balanced organic feed helps at the time of repotting.
ANTHURIUM AMNICOLA PROPAGATION STEP BY STEP
Propagate Anthurium Amnicola through plantlets
I’ve been growing Anthurium Amnicola for a few years and I’ve noticed that this plant naturally makes a couple of babies every year. The plantlets grow mature and start throwing more plantlets so within a few years you have a colony of these beautiful purple-lavender beauties.
Plantlets are attached to the stem at the bottom. I normally let them grow with the mother plant until the next potting season or even forever.
At the start of the growing season you can separate the plantlet without damaging the main plant. Just make sure to cut the plantlet in such a way that it has a couple of roots on it.
Plant it in a soil mix as explained in the soil section above and continue to care for it as usual.
Propagate Anthurium Amnicola through stem cutting in water
This is a reliable method, but I would recommend it only if your Anthurium Amnicola is quite mature and well grown. The best part about Anthurium Amnicola propagation through cuttings is that the plants you produce clones of the parent plant.
- As a general rule of thumb, select a stem with at least four nodes or sets of leaves, and some aerial roots.
- With sharp garden shears, clean-cut the stem in half, so that each portion has at least two nodes and aerial roots.
- Leave the base of your plant in its original pot
- Place the cutting in a tall glass jar with RO water and put a single drop of rooting solution. But this is optional as the stem will take root even without.
- Place the jar under grow lights maintaining good humidity and warmth.
- Within 2 weeks to a month, you’ll see young roots along the stem.
- Before you shift the cutting to the soil, allow the roots to grow a few inches long.
Seeds are another way to propagate Anthurium Amnicola. However, it takes skill and patience and is a method adopted only by experienced nurserymen.
Finally, most of the specimens of Anthurium Amnicola you get to buy these days have been produced through tissue culture which is entirely laboratory-controlled.
COMMON PROBLEMS WITH ANTHURIUM AMNICOLA
Yellowed (chlorotic), lesions along the leaf margins: If the lesions are water-soaked and then rapidly develops into a dark brown color, then this is a bacterial blight. It’s the most common disease seen in Anthuriums. As per the University of Florida, the bacteria enter through plant wounds like torn leaves or cut flowerheads.
Curative: Firstly remove the leaves showing early infections and completely eliminate badly infected plants.
Preventive: Bacteria can swim across wet surfaces; therefore, keep the foliage dry watering only at the roots. Maintain good air circulation around the plant.
Yellowing and wilting even if the plant is well watered: If plants exhibit a “bronzed” appearance with all the leaves turning yellow en masse, this may be bacterial wilt. If the leaves or stems of the affected plant are cut you may even find an ooze that happens due to infection. This spreads very fast and contaminates the soil as well. Unfortunately, your best bet is to eliminate every part of the infected plant along with the soil and to keep your other plants safe.
Wilting and drooping leaves: Check the roots. If they have died back and appear discolored or mushy, then the cause is Pythium fungal infection. It spreads due to waterlogged soil. The soil may show white growth suggesting the presence of the fungus. The plant needs to discarded and the soil has to be sterilized before reuse.
Almost every disease affecting Anthuriums is closely linked to overwatering and excess humidity. This may be a cause of confusion when you grow Anthurium Amnicola since it’s a humidity loving plant. The workaround is to keep the leaves dry and limit watering to the base.
Anthurium Amnicola is fairly pest resistant but can sometimes get sucking pests like aphids, spider mites, and mealybugs.
These sap-sucking pest feed on plant nutrients. Pests can be treated by spraying your plant with a regular insecticidal soap once a week.
You can also dab these insects with a cotton ball dipped in isopropyl alcohol. Remove the dead insects from the plant using a damp cloth.
Regular wiping of the leaves with a damp cloth is a very reliable preventive for pest problems.
TIPS FOR GROWING ANTHURIUM AMNICOLA
- The most important point about Anthurium Amnicola care is that it is a relatively thirsty plant.
- Water regularly and only in the daytime.
- The soil needs to be excellently well-draining and full of chunky organic components that aid drainage and aeration.
- Don’t splash the leaves. Wipe them dry after watering.
- An insecticidal soap routine is favorable.
- Grow Anthurium Amnicola in a slightly wide pot.
- Grow Anthurium Amnicola in a well-ventilated spot with space on all sides.
- These are warmth lovers and can’t tolerate the slightest frost. You need to overwinter them indoors or inside a greenhouse.
- They are not heavy feeders. Stick to organic soil supplements like fish emulsion.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT ANTHURIUM AMNICOLA
How do I increase Anthurium Amnicola blooms?
Encourage your Anthurium Amnicola to bloom with diluted phosphorus-rich fertilizer like a good orchid fertilizer. Once a bloom cycle is completed move it to a shadier spot for about six weeks and also reduce watering a little. After the rets period bring it back to bright light and regular watering. This too can trick the plant into flowering again.
Why does Anthurium Amnicola flowers turn green?
A common reason is that the purple spathe loses colour and turns greenish as it ages. It could also be a reaction of the plant to unfavourable growth conditions and is normally seen in commercial greenhouses.
How long before I have to repot Anthurium Amnicola?
It’s best to refresh the potting soil every year or two years. As the soil ages, the infection causing bacteria and fungus start building up around the roots. Repotting is a good time to check the health of the roots. Make sure there are no brown, slushy roots.
Is Anthurium Amnicola toxic for pets?
The plant contains oxalic crystals that can irritate the mouth, intestinal tract, and throat if swallowed. Even the sap can cause allergic reactions.
CONCLUSION
Anthurium Amnicola is popular amongst home gardeners who’re into flower arrangements for their homes.
It isn’t the most common of Anthuriums but I’d recommend adding it to your collection if you’re into exotic varieties of tropical plants.
I’d also recommend that you explore other exotic flowering plants that add great texture to your (indoor) garden such as Rhipsalis Pilocarpa or the Begonia Boliviensis.
Happy Gardening!