Anthurium Warocqueanum Care – Top Tips and Tricks

The name of the Anthurium Warocqueanum may sound like the name of some ancient Roman emperor, but it is actually the Latin name for an empress of the jungle. It is an unusual plant species from the family of Araceae, that we know for the impressive Monstera genus of plants. The eccentric looks and diva attitude makes her a unique indoor gem that will seduce even the coldest critic of the house plants.

If you are looking for a plant tolerable to forgetfulness and neglection you are at the wrong place. Anthurium Warocqueanum is a diva among tropical cultivars. It will demand your attention and dedication. That means you have to plan out thoroughly its care. She loves high humidity and temperature between 20-25 degrees Celsius. Never soak it in water, nor drenched the soil. Keep the watering schedule moderate. As for the light, like all other tropical plants, it likes it a lot, but never direct. Follow these instructions and you are on a good way to having a healthy and thriving Queen.

Have I tickled your curiosity? Keep reading this Anthurium warocqueanum care guide to find out what you should do if you want a happy and healthy Queen plant. 

What is Anthurium Warocqueanum?

Anthurium Warocqueanum was initially described in the XIX century by Thomas Moore in a horticulture magazine called Florist and pomologist.

The name itself is not a homage to some Roman emperor, as my first association was, but to an amateur Belgian plant breeder T. Warocqué.

It is also called the Queen plant, and I must say, it makes perfect sense for a couple of reasons I’m going to write about.

Anthurium Warocqueanum is an epiphyte plant native to Central and Western Colombia. Being an epiphyte means that it grows on the trees or some other similar support.

It has gorgeous foliage and can grow up to 6 ft tall. The leaves are unique by their dark green color, thickness and leathery feel, as well as by the silver venation that become more pronounced as the plant matures.

In the natural environment, the leaves can grow up to an amazing 2 meters!  When I first encountered the Queen Anthurium the shape of its magnificent foliage reminded me of medieval shields.

There’s a common opinion that Warocqueanum is a demanding species regarding the care regime and maintenance, but if you read about my experience carefully, you’ll quickly see that it is not quite true. 

It is not completely false either. After all, it is a Diva among plants, and like every diva, it has refined manners you should pay attention to.

Anthurium comes in many varieties, some of the most popular ones are:

Soil Requirements for Anthurium Warocqueanum Care

There are a couple of basic rules that you should follow when it comes to soil requirements for your Warocqueanum plant.

The most important is to provide the mixture to breathe, and water to circulate. My advice is to make your mixture out of ingredients that will enable optimal conditions for a plant to thrive. These are – bark mix, charcoal, fern fibre, and a sprinkle of soil.

Avoid making dense soil, to enable air supply.  The charcoal will protect the roots from bacteria while eliminating odours, while the fern fibre provides moisture and integration to the mixture.

You can also grow it in a Sphagnum Moss only, even though it’s not its natural growing material.

Whatever you choose remember the substrate has to be airy and moist, while well-drained. It’s a winning combo for the Queen to thrive.

Humidity

In their natural habitat, Warocqueanums are exposed to great amounts of humidity. They are from a family of plants that do enjoy these high humidity levels.

Therefore, a lot of plant breeders jump to the conclusion they have to overwhelm their Queens with great amounts of humidity. Makes sense, right?

What they tend to forget here is that these natural high humidity levels are accompanied by the same amounts of air circulation which is something you can hardly provide indoors.

There’s a common belief that humidity must be 70% and higher. But this goes for the outdoors. Indoors you can water your plant frequently to compensate for high humidity.

If the humidity of the room where your Queen lives is not below 55% there is no need to buy a humidifier.

Alongside humidity goes the temperature, and it is the balance of the two that is important.

The optimal temperature for all Anthuriums is between 20 and 25 Celsius.

Warocqueanum is a tropical plant and it grows in a hot and humid climate. But don’t obsessively strive to replicate these condition. Because it is, to put it simple – impossible.

Instead, allow the plant to adapt a little. It won’t tolerate a huge discrepancy of course, but a minor difference may be beneficial.

If you are planning to buy the Queen do it in the summer, so it can adapt with less trauma to the new environment.

Watering

When I was contemplating the nickname Queen, I wasn’t sure where it exactly came from, aside from the obvious outer beauty. But not all queens are beautiful.

However, they are all quite needy. It all came to me when I inspected the watering pattern. Unlike Monstera plants that will tolerate and forgive sloppy and irregular watering, the Queen is merciless.

It doesn’t like getting soaked, nor drenched. So my advice here is to make watering frequent but light.

If you leave the soil mixture to dry the plant will start drinking water from the leaves, and you don’t want that to happen.

To illustrate further, I water my anthurium three days a week, and she seems to enjoy it. In the winter months, you can reduce the watering to one day a week.

Related: Plant Watering- Guide for Gardening Beginners

Anthurium Warocqueanum Light Requirements

Every living creature needs light to develop optimally. Anthurium Warocqueanum plant is a true sun gazer.

In its natural habitat, it strives toward sunlight. But it is never exposed directly to it.

That can lead us to the conclusion that the optimal lightning conditions are those of bright but indirect light.

If the sunlight strikes directly in the foliage it can lead to burnt leaves, with black and dark brown spots.

Fertilizing Anthurium Warocqueanum

In natural habitat plants have various sources of nutritive elements and vitamins. It can be the surface they grow on or the ecosystem around them. This is very unlikely to be provided indoors. 

In an artificial environment, plants need a little extra care as well as nutrients. That leads us to the fertilization process.

Most plants need additional nutrition to thrive and flourish indoors. If you just ignore this fact and let them be in the soil mixture itself, you’ll regret this very quickly. The main nutrients Anthurium plant require are phosphorous, nitrogen and potassium.

I said it once, and I say it over and over again, Queen Anthurium is not as forgiving as some other plants, like Monstera.

Not fertilizing Anthurium with proper nutrition will result in her finding every possible source of additional substances that she needs to develop properly. And that source will primarily be her foliage.

I always recommend slow-realising fertilizer, but you can also use liquid fertilizer, just make sure to follow the instructions regarding concentration levels.

You can do this once every week.

Anthurium Propagation

There are a couple of ways to propagate Anthurium, but the most popular one is through stem cuttings.

When you make the cuttings on your plant for whatever reason, always remember to sterilize the tools. That way you will prevent germ transmission from the blade to the plant. 

I like to propagate stem cuttings in perlite because it is such a generous and great medium, with its water preserving and airflow providing abilities. It is a dream come true for plant breeders.

The pot in which you’ll propagate the cuttings should have holes. You fill it with perlite and put the stem cuttings in it.

After that, you’ll put the pot with holes and perlite and cuttings into a larger pot of water. The water should cover 1/3 of the perlite.

The last step is to put everything into a plastic bag or a terrarium (if you have one), close it, and wait for the magic to happen.

You can also propagate Queen Anthurium through the division of the mother plant. Whatever propagation method you choose, make sure that you do it anytime from spring to early autumn. In the winter months, plants get into hibernation.

Potting Anthurium Warocqueanum

Anthurium Warocqueanum grows on the trees in tropical forests. This is important when contemplating an ideal pot material for the growth of the Queen.

It is good that the pot is of wooden material, so the roots can attach to it as it would in its natural habitat attach to the tree.

Alternatively, you can use a pot made of clay, just make sure that it has drainage holes incorporated.

Problems and Fixes

Leaves are getting yellow

This is the most common problem with Queen Anthurium. If the plant is older, this is nothing to worry about, since it’s a natural process of the plant’s life cycle.  

But younger plants shouldn’t have yellow leaves if they are properly taken care of.

Whatever the issue is, overwatering, lack of watering, unfiltered sunlight, or root rotting – it will be shown right away on the foliage.  

Go through every piece of advice I gave you in this article and check what you skipped to do. It will be difficult to revive it, but it is not impossible.

Don’t wait for all leaves to wither. Take action as soon as you notice even the smallest change.

Root issues

If the withering continue, even after you’ve made changes regarding watering, light, temperature, humidity and fertilization, it may be due to root rotting.

Inspect the condition of the roots, cut whatever seems infected, mushy, dry or black.

If the root is damaged so some of it must be removed, you can consider repotting the Anthurium in a new soil mixture.

That’s the way to ensure that the pathogen that previously caused the infection is no longer present.  

Pests

Anthurium plants, themselves, are not that prone to pests, but if they are surrounded by other plants they are not so immune to plant intruders such as scales, mealybugs or spider mites. It is best if you notice them before they spread too much. 

Although barely visible, these little troublemakers do leave traces of their crime against nature.

Some of them will form web-like white dust (spider mites), others will leave sticky transparent fluids.

Whatever type of pests may be, they all have in common addiction to plants juices. Cotton ball sprinkled with 70% alcohol should efficiently destroy them.

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