You’ve got one gorgeous Anthurium plant, but you want to multiply it to get a few more – maybe for yourself, maybe for your friends, maybe to sell on Etsy. There are several different techniques you can try, including division, stem cuttings, and growing from seed. But what’s the best way to propagate Anthuriums?
The simplest, fastest, and most reliable way to reproduce Anthuriums is by splitting them at the roots. Propagating by division requires very few tools, and the new plants already have leaves and established root systems. And you have a lot of flexibility in deciding how to divide up your starting plant.
Dividing your Anthurium can also free up space if it’s getting too large for its container, and it’s a great way to revitalize an older plant that’s no longer flowering as much as it used to. Stem cuttings and seed propagations have their own advantages; we’ll discuss all three methods in more detail below.
Why Propagate Anthurium Plants?
The answer might seem obvious: you want more Anthuriums! But do you want new plants just like the ones you already have, or are you looking to mix it up and create something new?
Cuttings and root division are both examples of asexual propagation. The new Anthuriums they produce are genetically identical to the original plant – scientifically speaking, they’re clones. The chance to tell your friends you were making clones over the weekend might be all the reason you need to try it out!
Cloning a healthy and beautiful Anthurium is a great way to get more of a good thing. You don’t have to worry about any weird recessive traits popping up in your new plants; they’ll grow up almost identical to the original, with some variations based on their environment.
Sexual propagation, on the other hand, involves pollinating your Anthurium to produce seeds. This method is less predictable since you don’t know exactly which traits from the parents will make it into the offspring. That unpredictability is good from an evolutionary perspective because it mixes up the genes between generations to keep the species from falling into a rut.
For the grower, it’s an opportunity to enhance particular traits through selective breeding or to create interesting hybrids by cross-pollinating different species.
Now let’s delve into the pros, cons, and step-by-step instructions for each method. We’ll start with the simplest technique and work our way up to the trickiest.
Propagating Anthuriums by Splitting
It might sound like a paradox to say you can multiply your Anthuriums by dividing, but it’s actually by far the easiest option.
As an Anthurium spreads, the root mass of the plant sends up lots of stems, sometimes quite a distance from one another. All of these off-shoots can live independently, which helps the plant survive and reproduce itself if it’s damaged.
This means your Anthurium is tailor-made for propagation by splitting. Those clusters of stems can be quickly separated and repotted, and they’ll keep on growing without missing a beat.
Advantages of Dividing Anthuriums
- Simplicity. Did we mention it’s easy to do? It’s often possible to separate the clones entirely by hand.
- Recovery time. The clones produced by division don’t need to grow a new root system from scratch, so they’ll bounce back more quickly than small stem cuttings.
- Flexibility. You can split up your Anthurium practically any way you like. Want two medium-sized plants? No problem. Five tiny ones? You got it. Want to peel off two little clones from a larger middle section? Go right ahead. You’re only limited by the size of the plant.
- Vigor. Older Anthuriums can sometimes lose their zest for life and stop blooming as much. Splitting them up will produce young, hungry plants with something to prove – they’ll flower much more eagerly than before.
How to Propagate Anthuriums by Division
Start by gathering the necessary materials. You’ll need:
- Enough containers to hold the number of clones you’re producing.
- Enough potting mix to fill those containers.
- Gloves to protect your skin from the irritating sap that Anthuriums generate.
- Some newspaper or an old towel to lay down where you’re working (you’ll be uprooting the plants, which can get messy).
If you have a particularly large and woody Anthurium, you might also want:
- A set of pruning shears to cut through any extra-tough sections of stem.
- Disinfectant solution to clean your shears between snips, in order to avoid spreading bacteria or fungus from one part of the plant to another.
Step 1: Give your plant a good watering the day before. The roots will need some time to get back to their full strength after you divide them. In the meantime, you want your Anthurium well-hydrated.
Step 2: Scoop your potting mix into the new vessels until they’re about ⅓ to ½ full. Don’t pack it tight; Anthuriums prefer loose, breathable soil. (For information on the best potting soil for Anthuriums, read this article.)
Step 3: Get a good grip on the base of your Anthurium’s main stem cluster and tip the pot upside down to slide the plant free. Sometimes this will require tapping on the bottom of the container; Anthuriums often get rootbound.
Step 4: Gently clean as much potting mix away from the roots as you can to encourage them to take root in the new medium. You might have to rinse them with water to get them nice and clean.
Step 5: Look for a junction between two stems at the point where you want to split your Anthurium. Then grab the two halves of the plant by the base of the stems and slowly peel them apart like you’re shucking an ear of corn. Go slowly and steadily to avoid ripping the roots off the plant. If it’s too tangled to separate by hand, use your pruning shears to finish the job.
Step 6: Repeat Step 5 if you’re trying to produce more than one Anthurium. As long as each segment has at least one or two leaves and a few roots, they should be fine, though smaller clones will require more TLC after transplanting.
Step 7: Remove any fading leaves and rotting stems. You can trim the roots down to size if they’re too long for the new pots. Pinch off any stipules – the bark-like husks along the stems.
Step 8: Place your plants in their new containers and add more potting mix until the roots are buried. Water thoroughly once again, pouring until you can see it draining out of the pots through the drainage hole in the bottom.
For more information on propagating Anthuriums via division, read this article.
How to Care For Anthuriums After Splitting
The most significant danger facing your new Anthurium clones is a lack of humidity. Their roots will develop better in a warm, moist environment. Unless you live in a steamy climate or you have a humidifier running, you should mist your transplants at least once a day with a spray bottle.
You can enhance the effect by covering them up with something transparent but watertight to hold in the moisture. Glass jars or plastic bags are both good options; if you have lots of smaller Anthuriums, you place them all inside a big, clear plastic tub with a locking lid. But make sure to take the covers off once or twice a day to let some air circulate around the clones, reducing the risk of fungal infection.
Keep your plants out of direct light. This is always advisable with Anthuriums, but they’re especially vulnerable right now. Check the potting mix every few days to see if the top inch or two has dried out; if it has, water thoroughly.
Once you see the plants sending out new leaves, you’ll know they’ve taken root, and you can take the coverings off.
Propagating Anthuriums From Cuttings
If you’ve never seen it in action, the idea of chopping a plant apart and watching the pieces grow back sounds like pure science fiction. It’s absolutely real, though – many plants can regenerate from even small sections of their stem.
Anthuriums are particularly adept at this. In their natural rainforest habitat, they love to climb along rocks, cliffs, and other plants. The aerial roots that grow from their stems act as anchors in addition to absorbing water and nutrients. They also enhance the viability of stem cuttings – a chunk of the plant that’s already sprouting roots has a leg up on digging into a new pot.
That said, Anthurium cuttings without roots can still develop into full plants as long as they include at least two nodes – the sections of stem capable of putting out new leaves and roots. You can spot nodes that aren’t actively sprouting by looking for the bands of pale green or brown breaking up the darker green of the stem.
The bigger your Anthurium, the easier it will be to propagate from cuttings. Longer stem sections – with more nodes, roots, and/or leaves – will be better equipped to grow back after you replant them. And a mature parent plant can recover and put out new growth more easily.
One important note: you can not propagate Anthuriums from leaf cuttings. There are some houseplants that can sprout roots from just a leaf (or a petiole with a leaf attached), but Anthuriums won’t produce any new growth without stem nodes.
Advantages of Taking Anthurium Cuttings
- Tidiness. You don’t have to uproot your Anthurium to cut it. All you have to do is snip off the above-ground portion of the plant.
- Downsizing. Mature Anthuriums often develop a long, woody-looking stem that can make the plant look awkward and top-heavy. You can’t divide this stalk to make it more manageable since it extends well above the roots. But you can chop off the top portion and repot it, then slice up the remainder into smaller cuttings.
- Yield. Even very small Anthurium stem cuttings can take root and grow, so you can often get more clones from slicing a plant up than from splitting it at the roots.
How to Propagate Anthuriums From Stem Cuttings
The supplies for stem cuttings are the same as those for division, except that pruning shears or a sharp, serrated knife are mandatory.
You can prep your Anthurium for surgery by helping it grow out its aerial roots ahead of time. This step is optional but cuttings with more developed roots will find it easier to dig into their new containers.
Pile up a loose heap of growing medium around the bare portion of the stem. Use an airy substrate that retains moisture well, such as cocopeat or sphagnum moss. Mist it with a spray bottle and secure it with plastic wrap or foil to trap humidity inside. Don’t pack it too tightly; the roots need oxygen to grow.
Leave the Anthurium like that for a few weeks, allowing time for it to send roots out into the moss or coconut coir. When you’re ready to take your cuttings, unwrap it and brush away the material you’ve piled up.
This step is completely optional, so you can skip it if you don’t like having your Anthurium swaddled in plastic or foil.
Step 1: Fill your containers with potting mix. You can go close to the top of the pot since you don’t have to worry about burying a large root system.
Step 2 Cut the stem of your Anthurium away from the root ball. The exact length you cut will be determined by how many clones you want to produce and whether you want to leave some foliage on your parent plant. The rooted portion will send up new growth from its uppermost remaining node.
Step 3: Clean up the stem, peeling off any stipules to give you a clearer view of your work. You should also prune off dead or dying leaves. And – this one might hurt – trim away any blooms. It’s best to let your Anthuriums put their energy into root building rather than flower upkeep.
Step 4: Using your shears or knife, slice the stem into as many sections as you like, as long as each one has at least two nodes. For sections without any existing aerial roots, cut right at the level of the bottom node; the scarification will promote root growth.
Step 5 (optional): Brush a little antifungal powder onto the cut ends of your clones to reduce the risk of infection. Those who prefer natural options can use cinnamon instead. You can also apply an artificial rooting hormone to stimulate growth. Simply dip one end of the cutting into the hormone powder and use that as the lower end of the clone.
Step 6: Plant your cuttings in the containers you’ve prepared for them. Bury any aerial roots completely. If there are no roots, try to get several nodes under the surface, but leave at least one above ground to form leaves.
For more information on propagating Anthuriums via stem cuttings, read this article.
How to Care For Anthurium Cuttings
Tend to your cuttings as described in the instructions on caring for Anthuriums after splitting. You’ll have to wait longer for them to recover; five or six weeks is a typical timeframe for Anthurium cuttings to begin generating new foliage.
Propagating Anthuriums From Seed
This technique is closest to the way that Anthuriums reproduce in nature. Weirdly enough, it’s also the most complicated. To get an Anthurium to make seeds, you’ll need to pollinate it, taking on the role that insects or birds fulfill in the wild. Unlike those critters, you’ll need to understand the plant’s reproductive cycle to make this work.
Anthurium flowers are tiny nubs along the spadix – the small spike poking up from your Flamingo Flower’s bloom. That big, colorful petal below the spadix is actually a modified leaf called a spathe. The entire structure is called an inflorescence.
The flowers on a spadix can’t produce and receive pollen at the same time. Unless you have multiple Anthuriums (and you get lucky with the timing of their cycles), you’ll need to set aside some pollen from one bloom until a new one enters its receptive stage. Once you pollinate the new inflorescence, you’ll need to wait for the plant to produce berries before you can harvest and germinate the seeds.
This process requires patience. It can take over a year to go from collecting pollen to harvesting seeds, and then several more years to grow your seedlings to adulthood.
Advantages of Seed Propagation for Anthuriums
- Crossbreeding. As we noted above, pollination is the only way to cross two Anthurium species to make hybrids.
- Low-impact. You don’t have to rip apart or slice up your beloved plant. Propagating by seed will take some energy, but it won’t hurt your Anthurium at all.
- Yield. Depending on the species you have, you can get 15 to 30 seeds from a single fertilized Anthurium spadix. It’s hard to match those numbers with cuttings or division.
- Fun. Following the slow but beautiful reproductive cycle of your Anthurium can be fascinating and deeply satisfying.
How to Produce and Germinate Anthurium Seeds
The process begins when your Anthurium produces a new inflorescence. Shortly after the spadix emerges, it will enter female anthesis, the receptive stage of the flowering cycle. Tiny droplets of a clear liquid called stigmatic fluid will appear along the spadix.
After a few days, the fluid will dry up, and the spadix will enter male anthesis, producing little clusters of pale pollen. Now you can get to work.
Step 1: Using a small paintbrush, whisk the pollen off the spadix and into a folded piece of paper or foil. The male phase should last for a few days, and you can keep collecting pollen as long as it continues. If you have another Anthurium that’s in female anthesis, you can skip to Step 4.
Step 2: Fold the pollen up in the foil or paper, place it inside a watertight container like a resealable plastic bag, and label it with the date. Then store it in the freezer. You can add a packet of silica gel beads inside the larger container to soak up any moisture.
Step 3: Wait for a new inflorescence to sprout and enter its female phase. Don’t pollinate until a day or two after the stigmatic fluid shows; if you fertilize the plant too soon, some of the flowers on the spadix won’t bother entering the receptive stage, and you’ll get fewer seeds.
Step 4: Use your brush or fingertip to spread pollen all around the spadix. Repeat once a day as long as female anthesis continues. The best time for this is the early morning, but it’s okay if you have to do it later in the day.
Step 5: Wait for the plant to fruit. If the pollination succeeded, the spadix will start to develop larger bumps, tipping you off that the inflorescence has converted to an infructescence. Over the next 6 or 7 months, these bumps will develop into small berries.
Step 7: Pluck the ripened berries – they should pop right off the infructescence. Lay down a clean paper towel and squeeze the seeds out of the berries. Each fruit should contain 1 to 3 seeds. Clean off as much of the berry pulp as you can, rinsing the seeds if necessary.
Step 8: Place each seed on a bed of moist sphagnum moss, coconut coir, or vermiculite. You can use individual pots or space the seeds 2-4 inches apart inside one large container. Leave them right on the surface where you can watch them sprout.
For more information on pollinating, harvesting and germinating Anthurium seeds, read this article.
How to Germinate Anthurium Seeds
Cover your seeds up, keep them moist, and ventilate periodically, as described in the section on propagating Anthuriums by division. Maintain an ambient temperature between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and don’t expose them to direct sunlight.
After a week or two, your Anthurium seeds will begin to sprout roots and leaves. They’ll be ready to transplant into permanent pots in around a month. When it’s time to move them, don’t uproot them completely. Scoop up the patch of substrate where each plant is rooted and transfer that to a container filled with potting mix.
Containers and Growing Media for Anthurium Propagation
Anthuriums prefer a coarse growing medium with lots of air pockets and some ability to soak up moisture. For an easy but effective mix, combine equal quantities of orchid bark, coconut coir, and coarse-grade perlite. This kind of well-draining blend helps prevent the swampy conditions that cause root rot.
You should use a container with drainage holes for the same reason. And never transplant an Anthurium into a pot that’s much bigger than the plant; this can stress the roots and make overwatering more likely.
For more information on pots and potting mixes for Anthuriums, you can read our in-depth article.
Many growers like to place Anthurium clones in a uniform substrate for a while before placing them in potting mix, to let them grow sturdy roots. The process is similar to germinating seeds in moss or coco peat. Let’s look at some of those alternatives.
Rooting Anthurium Clones in Water
You can let your clones develop in a jar of water with no soil at all, eliminating any concerns about over-watering or under-watering. This also ensures the plants will have adequate humidity and makes it easier to monitor their developing root systems.
This approach does have some drawbacks. Anthuriums grow slowly in water, and once they’re established there, transplanting them to a solid medium can stress them out. If you wait too long, they may never be able to make the transition.
If you root your clones in water, transplant them once the roots have produced an inch or two of new growth. In the meantime, change the water and clean the jar once a week or so. This will refresh the oxygen in the liquid and keep algae from building up.
Note: this method only works for Anthuriums produced by splitting or cutting. Seeds won’t germinate in water alone.
Propagating Anthuriums in Perlite or LECA
You can also place your new Anthuriums in a jar of absorbent substrate with a bit of water in the base. The growing medium wicks moisture up to the clones, ensuring they get the right amount of water, and using a sterile medium reduces the risk of infection.
This technique works very well with perlite, a type of porous volcanic glass (those little white chunks you see in store-bought potting mix are made of perlite). It’s a coarse medium that leaves lots of breathing room for Anthurium roots.
LECA, which is a fancy acronym for little balls of expanded clay, has similar properties to perlite. It’s a little heavier and more expensive, but it offers a little more aeration; the difference mostly comes down to personal preference.
Moisten the substrate and fill a jar with it, then add water until a quarter to a third of the material is submerged. Cover the clones as described in the section on caring for Anthuriums after division. While they’re rooting, make sure there’s always some water in the base of the jar, but not so much that it’s touching the plants.
Final Thoughts
Now that you have a better understanding of the advantages of each method for propagating Anthuriums, you should be able to choose the one that’s right for you. Of course, you don’t have to pick just one; as your collection expands, you’ll have lots of opportunities to test out different techniques.
Remember that your plants need good drainage, humidity, and indirect light to grow. Keep that in mind and you’ll be raising a healthy crop of new Anthuriums before you know it.
