How to Propagate an Anthurium: Division, Stem Cuttings and Offsets

Choosing a method

There is no such thing as an anthurium leaf cutting. A leaf on its own, with or without its stalk, will sit in water for months and never make a plant. Every method that works involves a piece of the stem carrying a growing point or a node, and there are three of them worth your time.

Work only between late spring and early autumn, in a room reliably above 70F (21C). Below about 65F (18C) cut surfaces rot faster than roots form.

Division, step by step

An established anthurium builds up side crowns around the original, each with its own leaves and its own roots. Separating them is the easiest propagation there is, and it doubles as the answer to a plant that has outgrown its pot.

1. Unpot and wash enough mix off to see Rinse the rootball until you can make out where each crown's roots run. Guessing under a layer of mix is how people cut through the middle of a crown.
2. Find a natural separation Look for a side crown with three or more leaves of its own and a visible set of roots. A crown with one leaf and no roots of its own is not ready.
3. Separate by hand where you can Work the crowns apart with your thumbs. Most divisions come away without a blade. Use clean snips only for the few roots that will not release.
4. Pot each division small Use the smallest pot the roots fit into, in the same chunky bark mix as an adult plant. A large pot around a small division stays wet and rots it.
5. Water once and keep it warm Water it in, then keep the mix barely damp, the plant out of direct sun and the room above 70F (21C). Do not feed for a month.

Expect a division to lose a leaf and sulk for a fortnight. A new leaf within four to six weeks tells you it has taken.

Taking a stem top cutting

This is what to do with the tall, bare stemmed plant whose crown is standing several inches above the mix on aerial roots. Rather than trying to bury it, cut it off and start it again as a plant with a proper root system.

Choose your cut so the top carries the crown, several leaves and at least two or three healthy aerial roots below it. Cut cleanly through the stem with a sterilized blade, leaving as much stem below the aerial roots as you can spare, and let the cut surface dry in the air for an hour.

1. Pot it straight into mix Set the cutting into damp bark mix so the aerial roots are covered and the crown is not. Support it with a cane if it will not stand up on its own.
2. Or root it in sphagnum first Alternatively, pack damp sphagnum moss around the aerial roots in a container, keep it lightly moist, and pot it up once new white roots run through the moss.
3. Keep the humidity up A clear bag or a propagator over the top for the first three weeks makes a real difference, because the cutting has to support its leaves with almost no roots. Open it daily for air.
4. Do not keep it soaking Damp, never wet. A cutting standing in water rots at the cut before it roots.

Do not throw away the stump you cut it from. Kept warm and damp in its pot, the remaining stem usually pushes one or two new shoots from dormant nodes within a couple of months.

Rooting bare stem sections

A length of old bare stem, cut into pieces of two to three inches (5 to 8 cm) each carrying at least one node, will sprout if you give it warmth and time. Lay the pieces horizontally on damp sphagnum moss or a bark and perlite mix, press them lightly in so half is in contact, and cover the container to hold humidity.

This is slow, often two to four months before a shoot appears, and the strike rate is lower than division. It is worth doing because the alternative is the compost pile, not because it is a good way to build up numbers.

Water rooting, and why it is second best

A top cutting with aerial roots will root in a jar of water and it is satisfying to watch. Change the water every three days, keep the crown and leaf stalks out of it, and keep the jar warm and bright but out of the sun.

The catch is that water roots are structurally different from roots grown in a mix and many of them die when you pot the plant up. Move it into mix as soon as the new roots reach an inch or two (3 to 5 cm) rather than waiting for an impressive mass, and expect a check for a fortnight afterwards.

If a cutting in water goes soft and brown at the cut, take it out, cut back into firm tissue, let it dry for an hour and start again in damp moss instead.

Seed, briefly

Anthurium flowers are not self compatible in any useful way, because the female phase on a spadix finishes before the male phase begins. Raising seed means having two plants in flower at different stages, brushing pollen from one to the other, waiting several months for berries to ripen, and then sowing seed that must be fresh because it loses viability within days.

Seedlings then take three to four years to flower and will not resemble the parent. Do it if the process interests you. If you want more plants that look like the one you have, divide it.

What to record

Write down the date you divided or took the cutting, how many pieces you made, and where each one went. Anthurium propagation moves slowly enough that a month later you genuinely will not remember whether that pot has been sitting there five weeks or nine.

Note the date the first new leaf appears on each piece as well. That date is the only reliable evidence that it has rooted, and it tells you when to start feeding and when to stop treating it as a cutting.

The sap irritates skin and mouths. Wear gloves when dividing, wash tools and hands afterwards, and keep offcuts away from children and pets.