The Hot, the Loud and Proud Anthuriums

 

 

Its time for our end of the month highlight of the  Hot, the Loud and the Proud,  hosted on A Plant Fanatic in Hawaii and this is my entry for the month. 

I’m taking you to tour an anthurium farm in Hawaii island. Anthurium flowers are a real cash crop for many Hawaiian flower growers because they have the ideal growing conditions, minimized costs, and anthuriums can still earn good revenue due to the exotic varieties grown here.

My friend’s place, Tikal Nursery is located in the cloud forests beneath the Mauna Loa volcano and is the ideal location for growing these beautiful plants. Tikal is one of the oldest nurseries and has many rare types that are not typically shown or sold worldwide. Below is a photograph of one of their shade houses, showing how the anthuriums are grown.  Even though they get a lot of rain here, there are many dry days so overhead sprinklers are still necessary.

 

 

Have you ever seen a double anthurium, it is not widely sold anywhere even in Hawaii. I’m not sure if it would be a popular flower, but in the ground, it looks really spectacular!

 

 

This is my friend showing one of their beautiful Obake variety called Obake - Oshiro, isn’t it huge! These sell at a higher price in Hawaii, so I can imagine what they would be selling at more expensive prices world wide. The wonderful thing about these tropical flowers are their  longer shelf life, so blooms can easily last up to a month.

 

 

This is similar to the larger obake above, this one is called Rainbow and it is ready to be picked when the spadix in the middle is a bright yellow showing it to be at its prime. The older it gets, the spadix starts turning more brown.

 

I love the pure white varieties, another specialty of this grower and the spadix are also white which is rare, this one is called Rudy’s White after the owner of Tikal Nursery.

 

 

 

There are many rainbow varieties and I’m particularly fond of the very pale green and pink version below.

 

 

 

This true red color is the most popular anthurium that is grown and sold from Hawaii. I think everyone see’s this color of anthurium and readily recognizes its tropical allure.  Personally I think these are pedestrian, but its only because I see them all the time.

 

Another rare variety that is un-named. The spadix here is pink and the veins are pinkish red flowing to the green leaflet.

 

Say hello to Lady Jane, this is one of the rarest plants, the flower is actually not spectacular, what makes it unique is the foliage. It is the only variegated anthurium grown at this nursery, and its not for sale.

 

Don’t you love the variegation of the leaves?  I want some of these, don’t you ?

Wasn’t that a fun tour, I hope you enjoyed a visit here at Tikal nursery in Hawaii.

 

Come and visit these other blogs to see more of the Hot, the Loud and the Proud at http://aplantfanatic.blogspot.com/