Anthurium no. 0126 "Erin Dirtylondry"

Erin was the thirteenth Anthurium seedling to bloom for me, and in looking back through old posts to see where she got mentioned, I notice that she kinda got lost in the crowd at the time. Which is too bad, since her blooms have been pretty consistently nice, large, and long-lasting. The only thing wrong with them, really, is the color: I have lots of pink-and-pinks.¹

One does need a couple good pink-and-pinks around, though. Erin is one of a few pink-and-pinks that have been promoted to 6-inch pots;² the bloom in this post is the first one she produced after the transplant.

Nothing about Erin is clearly superior to all the other seedlings, but she manages to be above average in most categories (earlyish to bloom but not the earliest, spathes are larger than average but not the largest, pleasant leaves but not the biggest / heaviest / prettiest), plus, as one of the earliest seedlings to bloom, there's a bit of a sentimental attachment there.

One slightly interesting thing: last May/June, she produced a spathe with a dark pink blush at the base, which isn't unprecedented (#0083 "Carmen Adairya" does this a lot) but is definitely uncommon. According to the Anthurium-breeding book,³ this may be related to the time of year -- apparently a lot of Anthurium plants will produce blushed inflorescences in the winter but not at other times of the year, and obake spathes (those with green coloration near the margins) tend to be produced only in summer and early fall, with the plants producing "standard" blooms of a solid color the rest of the time.

If blushing is supposed to be more intense in the winter, and Erin was blushing in the summer, then the timing seems weird, but it's entirely possible that the basement seedlings have their seasons backwards -- they don't see a lot of natural light, and it may well be warmer down there in the winter and cooler in the summer because of us running the heat and air-conditioning.

In any case, Erin's looking like a keeper. She's even already produced five seedlings.⁴

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¹ So far:
#0041 "Anna Graham" • #0066 "Barbara Seville" • #0083 "Carmen Adairya" • #0126 "Erin Dirtylondry" • #0214 "Anita Knapp" • #0216 "Gillian Jamm" • #0218 "Noah Fence" • #0232 "Rhoda Badcek" • #0235 "Rowan DeBoate" • #0241 "Megan Gigaterra" • #0244 "Sara Problem" (deceased) • #0271 "Wanda Reulthemal" • #0273 "Wes Coast" • #0275 "Yvette Horizon" • #0279 "Tristan Shout" • #0283 "Anne Pursand" (deceased) • #0565 "MysterE" • #0594 "Charity Case,"
with #0118 "Elijah Sturdabowtit," #0202 "Mason Pepperspray," and "#0218 "Noah Fence" as edge cases (Elijah is orange / orange when the spathe first unfurls, but becomes pink / pink over time; Mason starts out pink / pink and becomes white / pink; Noah's first bloom was pink / pinkish-lavender but the second was pink / orange, so I'm not sure how to classify him.)
² The others were 0066 "Barbara Seville," 0271 "Wanda Reulthemal," and 0275 "Yvette Horizon," who all have their own strengths (lighter pink, very fertile, and more saturated/vivid pink, respectively) though just between you, me, and the internet, I'm kinda thinking that Barbara might not deserve to be in such elite company, and I'm a little concerned that Erin, Wanda, and Yvette know this. I don't want to see a Mean Girls thing start up. Plus, now that I think about it, they often do all wear pink on Wednesdays.
³ (Breeding Anthuriums in Hawaii, Haruyuki Kamemoto and Adelheid R. Kuehnle, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, HI, 1996.)
⁴ Only five at the moment: #0982 "Elle Emenopé," #0983 "Boxxa Vine," #0984 "Alotta McGriddles," #0985 "Sasha Metz," and #0986 "Marie Noelle Ankwanza." Another ten or so have germinated but not been potted up yet.