Anthurium Damage
Sometimes due to circumstances that are beyond our control, anthurium plants can sustain damage.
At times the cause of the damage may be an over-zealous pet and at other times it may be a young child with a pair of scissors.
Sometimes, the anthurium damage may even be caused by an act of God.
In fact, about twenty years ago, our anthurium farm was hit by a twister. Now twisters may be common in the Midwest, but they are very rare in Hawaii. This force of nature folded the three inch steel pipes that we used to build our shade houses in half, as if they were sheets of paper.
But despite the damage very few plants were lost on our farm.
Anthurium plants have remarkable regenerative capabilities and can often bounce back from terrible damage if given the proper care.
If your plant has sustained damage, even if it looks very bad, I would still recommend that you continue to care for it and give it a chance to recover.
Anthuriums remind me of starfish.
I’m sure that you probably heard the story about the crown of thorns starfish. A single one of these starfish destroys about 65 square feet of coral reef each year.
Many years ago, divers would cut them in half to try to kill them. Then they would toss each half back into the ocean.
But after they did this the starfish population exploded. It turns out that each half grew into a new starfish.
Anthuriums are kind of like that. Often when they are damaged and even cut in half, as long as each half possesses a node or two, each half can recover and develop into two plants.
So even if your anthurium is severely damaged or even cut in half, just make sure that you immediately plant any pieces of your damaged anthurium into a good potting soil. And then remember to water it diligently. Damaged anthuriums are much more sensitive to dehydration, especially if they are missing part of their root system.
With a little luck, your anthurium plant will recover and you may even end up going from having one anthurium plant to having two of them.