Anthurium or flamingo plant is a houseplant sure to add a touch of the tropics and brighten up the living spaces in your home. Not only is this houseplant beautiful, it's also easy to grow. They flower year round, and although the bright red ones are still among my favorites, there are new introductions with incredible blooms in all sorts of never before seen colors and sizes. By the way, the attractive heart shaped flowers are actually waxy modified leaves called brachts. The flowers are the tiny spikes that grow above them. Don’t be alarmed if you see roots growing from the stems! These are simply aerial roots that would benefit from occasional misting. If you don’t like the look of these roots, you can cut them without hurting the plant. Flamingo plants are epiphytes, a type of plant that comes from warm, tropical regions where they either grow on the surface of other plants or in moss that builds up in branch unions high up in trees. Therefore, as a houseplant, anthurium is extremely durable and requires little care. Provide your flamingo flower with bright indirect light for best growth. In summer, keep the soil moist at all times, but allow it to barely dry on the surface before watering in winter. In spring, re-pot in a 1 inch bigger container. If you can find it, plant in soil specially formulated for anthuriums, usually available at nurseries and garden centers. Fertilize with a quarter strength dilution of soluble liquid house plant food once per month. These plants like it warm so try to keep temperatures above 55 degrees. Finally, when the flowers fade, remove them by cutting at the base of the flower stem, closest to the base of the plant to encourage new flowers to form. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KING 5's New Day Northwest is Western Washington's only local daytime talk show. Watch it weekdays at 11 a.m. PST on KING 5 TV and streaming live on http://www.king5.com. #newdaynw 🢒 Follow New Day Northwest! 🢐 FACEBOOK 🢒 https://www.facebook.com/newdaynw TWITTER 🢒 https://twitter.com/newdaynw INSTAGRAM 🢒 https://www.instagram.com/newdaynw