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Anthurium Pruning Guide (Why, When, and How)

Anthurium Pruning Guide (Why, When, and How)

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Did you recently purchase an anthurium plant? Perhaps you were giving one of these pretty plants as a gift.

They’re wonderful houseplants that are pretty easy to care for overall. You might still be learning about how to care for the plant to help it thrive.

Pruning the plant is something that you want to know how to do. Like with most plants, pruning is something that can be beneficial when caring for them.

Read on to learn everything you need to know about pruning anthuriums. This will ensure that you approach the situation correctly so that you don’t make mistakes.

Can You Prune Anthuriums?

Yes, it’s normal to prune anthuriums from time to time. Like with most other plants, it’s not wise to leave anthuriums with dead blooms or leaves.

Failure to prune the plant often enough could cause it to experience some health issues. Also, you don’t want the plant to look bad.

Anthuriums are beautiful flowering plants that look their best when they’re properly maintained. So it’s worthwhile to prune the plant as necessary.

The basics of doing so won’t be hard to understand even if you’re new to caring for houseplants. It essentially just involves cutting away dead or dying sections of the plant.

Why Should You Prune Anthuriums?

Pruning an anthurium is a good idea because it’ll help to keep the plant looking nice. You want your anthurium plant to look its best.

If you don’t prune the plant, it’s eventually going to look out of control. It’ll stop looking healthy and you won’t be able to enjoy it nearly as much.

Of course, it’s important to prune the plant for health purposes, too. To keep the plant healthy, it’s important to prune away dead flowers and leaves.

You need to do this every so often or the plant will experience problems. To keep the plant growing properly and looking nice, pruning it will be a necessity.

How to Prune Anthuriums

Pruning an anthurium isn’t difficult at all. This isn’t something that you need to feel intimidated by.

Even if you’re a total novice when it comes to houseplants, you’ll have an easy time pruning anthuriums. The process is straightforward and it’s easy to tell what you need to do.

To begin, you want to make sure that you buy a sharp pair of pruning shears from the store. You just need a simple handheld set of pruning shears that are meant to be used on houseplants.

Most people choose to wear gloves when pruning houseplants. While you can prune plants without wearing gloves, it’s just wise to do it for safety purposes.

Once you’re ready, it’ll be time to start cutting away dead leaves. If you see any dead or discolored leaves on the plant you’ll simply need to use the pruning shears to cut them away.

The same is true for any spent blooms that you see on the plant. Wilted flowers can be pruned away by cutting off the stem at the base of the plant.

You want to do this so that the plant will stop wasting energy by trying to send it to the dying leaves and spent blooms. This will help the anthurium to focus its energy on growing and producing new flowers.

When to Prune Them

Pruning is something that you’ll do on an as-needed basis. You don’t have a specific time of the year that you need to stick to when pruning these plants.

It’s fine to prune your anthurium at any time of the year. You also don’t have to prune the anthurium regularly.

You only need to do this when you see discolored leaves or wilting flowers. So pay attention to the plant and give it a trim when it’s necessary to do so.

Being a proactive plant owner will help the plant to grow stronger. You’ll help the plant to grow while also ensuring that it can devote its energy to blooming again.

Pruning is an important thing to do, but you won’t be pruning these plants all the time. Just pay attention and get your pruning shears out when the time is right.

Why Regular Pruning Can Help

There are some benefits to pruning these plants a bit more regularly. When you don’t trim these plants, they might grow in unusual ways.

So sometimes trimming the plant is more about shaping it and ensuring that the plant remains balanced. You want the anthurium plant to remain upright in its pot.

Pruning away certain sections of the plant might be necessary to accomplish this. It isn’t unusual for one side to grow more than the other.

Correcting this using your pruning shears isn’t that tough to do. Eliminate old growth on the plant and try to keep the plant balanced and aesthetically pleasing.

It’ll be worthwhile to put the time into pruning the plant like this. The process doesn’t take too long and it makes things look much nicer.

What Causes Anthuriums to Experience Leggy Growth?

Leggy growth can be very frustrating to deal with. The term “leggy growth” refers to when a plant grows tall and the foliage is a bit sparse.

Often, leggy growth is caused by plant owners giving anthuriums too much fertilizer. You might have used fertilizer that has too much nitrogen.

The growth caused by the fertilizer might have made the plant grow in unusual ways. You can sometimes fix this issue with pruning, but it might be more practical to cut off sections of the plant and root them in the soil.

Anthurium plants are rather simple to propagate when you take stem cuttings. A three-inch stem cutting can be propagated and will make a new plant.

So propagation is a practical way to deal with leggy growth. In the future, be careful not to use too much fertilizer.

What Is the Best Fertilizer to Use?

Most enthusiasts agree that the best fertilizer for anthuriums will contain phosphorus. A fertilizer with high phosphorus content can help these plants to grow strong and produce beautiful blooms.

You want the fertilizer to have more phosphorus than nitrogen. Ideally, you should seek out a 10-30-30 fertilizer.

It’s easy to find the fertilizer that you need from the store. You can buy fertilizer at garden centers and nurseries.

Use the fertilizer as instructed without going overboard. Too much fertilizer can be detrimental to your houseplants.

Anthuriums are only meant to be fertilized during the growing season. This occurs during the spring and summer months.

The plant should only be fertilized once every four to six weeks. Don’t fertilize the plant more often than this since it’ll backfire.

Always remember to dilute the fertilizer properly before giving it to the plant. You should receive instructions on how to do so when purchasing the fertilizer.

How Long Will Anthuriums Live?

Anthuriums are plants that will stick around for quite some time. If you care for the plant well, it’ll live for at least three years.

Typically, anthuriums live between three and five years. This assumes that the plants are being cared for well and that they aren’t exposed to improper environmental conditions.

However, it should be said that you can use propagation to make the plant last indefinitely. By propagating the plant you will be able to create new plants.

The new plants will restart the clock, so to speak. So people often simply propagate these plants so they can keep enjoying anthuriums indefinitely.

This is a great way to ensure that you’re always able to enjoy these pretty plants in your home. Don’t shy away from giving propagation a shot if you’re interested.

Final Thoughts

Pruning anthuriums will be simple enough that you can do it even if you’re inexperienced. It’s mostly about cutting away dying or discolored leaves.

You’ll also remove wilting flowers from the plant using your pruning shears. Getting rid of dead leaves and flowers will allow the plant to focus on new growth.

This is an important thing to do that you’ll want to pay attention to. Sometimes it’s better to prune the plant regularly so you can shape it and ensure that it’s able to remain upright.

You don’t necessarily have to prune these plants all the time, though. They generally just need to be pruned as necessary when you see that certain sections need to be cut away.

Pruning is not tough and you just need a sharp pair of gardening pruning shears to get the job done. Sterilize the shears before getting started and then sterilize them again once you’re done.

Anthuriums are incredible plants that you’ll love keeping in your home. If you look after them well, they’ll add beauty to your household for many years.

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