Dark leaves, silver veining, velvety texture. It’s everything a girl could possibly dream of. And by girl, I mean me. 

The Anthurium forgetii dark form is by far one of the favorite plants I own. This gal is a new addition to my collection; my sweet plant friend, and the best coworker I could ask for, gifted me this plant for my birthday this year. 

I cherish this baby so much. I don’t think I care for my plants as well as I do this one. I wash her leaves every week, I check her root system every few weeks, I have her in the best soil mixture I’ve ever made. I am terrified of losing her, and if, and only if I lose her, I think I’ll have to give her a proper funeral. 

As any Anthurium does, this plant requires the highest humidity possible. She sits in my greenhouse cabinet directly next to the humidifier. She’s so humid she has guttation constantly. As gross as it sounds, guttation is a good sign. In a simple way, it means her humidity is so high she sweats. 

She’s also under a grow light, so she just has the best possible environment I can provide. It’s basically like she’s living in a tropical jungle. But she’s not. 

With the care I provided her so intensely these last few months, she has given me a whole new leaf! Anthuriums are rather slow growers. I believe this is the second-ever leaf any of my Anthurium have given me. 

The best part of new leaf growth with these plants is the way they mature. Miss dark form released this leaf about two weeks ago, and it started off about the size of a quarter. They continue to grow after unfurling, and she’s about 2 inches in width and 4 inches in length. She still hasn’t hardened off, so she will continue to grow. 

My aforementioned had one of his Anthuriums grow a new leaf, and after two months, finally hardened off. The new leaf was 8 inches in width and 10 inches in length. For a houseplant, that’s pretty impressive. 

Anthuriums are a type of aroid, so she gets my special aroid mix. Except I amped it up slightly. When potting her up, I decided to add some sphagnum moss to her mix. This helps maintain humidity and moisture in her root system, but with the horticultural charcoal and orchid bark, chances of root rot are very low. 

This is one of my favorite Anthuriums, as well as one of my favorite plants. I truly believe everyone should add this plant to their collection. And if you do, you better send me a billion pictures so I can fangirl over them.