Past Newsletters - August 2010
Anthuriums: A Constellation of Vibrant Bracts!
Your featured tropical arrangement will certainly thrive in these hotter days of summer; however, our primary fondness of this bouquet is its ability to deliver a different point of view. Many of our arrangements feature broad, soft petal flowers and wide backing greens. The result is often a bouquet that fills out the vase and visually remains quite wide. This month, the allure of the flower taking center stage is in the vibrant colors and simplistic yet striking floral structure. There are eight stems of various colored Anthuriums from Hawaii. Additionally, the contrast between the exceptionally thin stems supporting the large, glossy, brilliantly-colored Anthuriums is most striking and makes for a very attractive arrangement. The attraction begins at the thin supporting structures of the stems and pulls the eye up and out to the large floral constellation of vibrant bracts. For us this image parallels a snapshot of holiday fireworks shooting upwards and igniting the nighttime sky.
You have many possible arrangement combinations. We love to use the tri-colored hala leaves as punctuation in the arrangement by making small twists (like knots) toward the top; a welcomed variation from the bright bracts of the Anthuriums. The stems of the Anthuriums can be cut at various lengths to evoke the firework finale mentioned above, or you may opt to have all these lovely tropical beauties dance at the same level. The choices are limitless, and entirely up to you! Enjoy this bit of the tropics and arrange as you like. The fact that these hearty flowers will often last for 3 weeks or more gives you the opportunity to sculpt different designs over time, so have fun with it!
Anthurium: The Love Flower, and the “Heart” of Hawaii
Anthurium is a genus of more than 800 species found in the New World tropics from Mexico to northern Argentina and Uruguay; species are also native to the West Indies. Many species have not even been described yet, as new ones are being discovered each year. The flowers are small, and develop a crowded spike with a fleshy axis called a Spadix, and because this genus is so diverse, the flowers or leaves come in many different shapes: from spatulate, to rounded, to obtuse. The upper surface of the leaf is semi-glossy and has an almost leathery texture. Their cousins include jack-in-the-pulpit, calla lilies, split-leafed philodendron and taro. Common names for Anthuriums are: Flamingo Flower, Boy Flower, Flamingo Lily and Tailflower.
Even though the genus is not native to the Hawaiian Islands, in the minds of many people, Anthurium andreanum is the Hawaiian flower. Often referred to as "the heart of Hawaii", this species is actually native to the wet forests on the western slopes of the Andes in southern Colombia and northern Ecuador where it grows as an epiphyte. (An epiphyte is a non-parasitic plant that grows in the wild rooted not in soil, but on the body of another plant or on rocks. These plants cling to their support with aerial roots and gain nourishment from the atmosphere or from the moisture-capturing crevices in which it lodges.)
A tropical flower to be sure, Anthuriums have eccentric petal-like bracts known as “spathes” that are typically red, pink, white or green, and often take the form of a heart (another very tangible reason they've earned the nickname "the heart of Hawaii"). The blooms are glossy like patent leather, and provide another dimension to this bouquet's barrage of visual textures by showcasing their waxy, seemingly wet, even artificial, appearance. As a cut flower, Anthuria usually live two to three weeks, making them one of the longest lasting tropical flowers in arrangements, and a florist's favorite!
A Long Journey to Our Backyards
We have a few folks to thank for the Anthurium introduction to North America, as it took a roundabout course in getting here! Anthurium andreanum was actually discovered in South America, in Colombia back in 1876 by Edouard André, a French botanist, landscape-architect and publicist. André later sent it to the famed nurseries of Jean Linden, an important botanist, explorer, traveler and collector for the Belgian government between 1835 and 1845. From there, it made its way to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, England.
So, we see how it made its way to various parts of Western Europe, but what about its journey to Hawaii? According to Marie Neal, Anthurium andreanum was introduced into the Hawaiian Islands in 1889 by Samuel Mills Damon, the minister of finance for the Republic of Hawaii. These plants were imported from London and had shell pink spathes. Since plants in the wild have spathes that are scarlet, this would suggest that some hybridization and selection had already taken place. The plants were grown on Damon's estate on Oahu where they underwent vegetative propagation and were ultimately distributed to other growers.
The sexual propagation of Anthuriums was not understood until the early 1940s, but once this form of propagation was added to the grower's knowledge, the number of plants and degree of variation increased tremendously. The beautiful inflorescences were introduced to the floral shops of Hawaii in the 1940s, from a cut flower industry that started in backyards. The plants were grown under tangerine trees, orange trees and tree ferns. Some of the early cultivars include 'Ozaki' (1936), 'Kozohara' (1946), and 'Nitta' (1946). These and many other early cultivars were primarily composed of reds and oranges.
Hawaiian Hala and Black Tea Leaves—An Arranger's Best Friends!
The importance of the tri-colored Hala leaves (Pandanus tectorius) from the sun-drenched state of Hawaii cannot be underestimated in their supporting role in your bouquet. Provided for additional texture and the contrasting form in their broad leaves, the Hala leaves also bring in yet another tropical element to this bouquet. The Hala leaves give the arranger an opportunity to add unique twists and turns in the composition of the ensemble. They may be woven together or turned and knotted upon themselves to create an additional focal point to the observer. This technique momentarily draws the observer's eye out of the body of the bouquet and off the Anthuriums, to which attention soon returns. In this way, the Hala leaves and Black Tea Leaves can help to animate your arrangement. After all, there's much more to a beautiful bouquet than the vibrancy of its colors. Form and focus are tremendously important to consider.
Originating in ancient times, this plant is known not only for the stripes of color and pattern it lends to flower arrangements; it has also been employed for centuries in Hawaii as a fiber and dye used in traditional crafts and customs. Blankets, or "kapas," were woven out of the Hala leaves and were decorated with the dye from the fruit of the tree. Leis were also fashioned from the leaves, although one of the meanings of “hala” is "death," so the leis were used only to adorn oneself and not given to others.
The Hala tree is small- to medium-sized with a distinctive growth form due to its dichotomous branching pattern. Dichotomous branching involves forking at the tip so that two branches always result. Most of this tree's trunk is bare. The large leaves cluster at the stem tips. The stems produce many "Prop Roots," which support the stems as they grow upwards. Without them, these brittle stems would break. The fruit of the Hala tree very closely resembles the pineapple and was commonly enjoyed by the ancient Hawaiians.
