When you hear anthurium, you’re most likely thinking of the plants with colorful heart-shaped flowers – that’s Anthurium andraeanum, which was introduced to Hawaii in 1889 and eventually became a popular ornamental plant throughout the Pacific, including Guam.

I haven’t had much luck keeping those kinds of anthuriums alive in my garden, but another lesser known species is flourishing: Anthurium scandens. I was at a Kauai nursery several years ago when I came across a striking plant with a cluster of plump berries on a small spike. Some plants had white berries, while others had lavender ones. Luckily, it was one of the plants they could ship to Honolulu, so I selected a lavender version.

It flourished in my garden for a while, then took a turn for the worse and just died down to a bare stem. I didn’t give up on it, just kept watering it and placing it in different areas of the garden where it would get varying amounts of shade and wind. I was rewarded about a year ago when it revived and even began producing the berry clusters again.

As a backyard gardener, I thought I knew a lot about propagating plants from seed, but I didn’t realize the berries contained seeds. I figured it out after seeing seeds offered at my neighborhood free store, prompting me to try to grow more of these cool plants.

See the video below for how I collected the seeds and planted them. Please note that you need to be careful with the sticky pulp from the berries, which may be toxic because of calcium oxalate crystals. I didn’t experience any irritation with the pulp when squishing the berries, but it can cause irritation if you get it on your skin or eyes, or nausea, vomiting or diarrhea if you try to eat it.

The video, which was taken June 17, demonstrates lightly covering the seeds with soil but for my initial batch on April 22, I placed the seeds directly onto the soil (a seed potting mix by Miracle-Gro).

I got a 99% propagation rate with the first batch of seeds, which first appeared six days after planting, on April 28 (photo, left). By June 9, the seedlings were quite established. I’m hoping to be able to repot these in 2-3 more months.

I would not consider propagating this plant from seed if you’re not a patient, diligent (read obsessed) gardener. According to the interwebs, the seedling stage can last four to six months and take up to three years to fully develop. I had an earlier batch of seedlings that I tried to place in larger pots at the two month stage, and they just died – which is why I’m propagating so many seedlings this time around.

I’ll update this post with progress on these new sets of seedlings, so stay tuned!

Update June 28: