Earlier this week I exchanged email with Emily Colleti who is in charge of the care of the entire aroid greenhouse at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, MO on this very subject. Her boss, Dr. Tom Croat, has collected more Anthurium and aroid species than any living human being and the point of many conversations has been the soil mixtures they use for Anthurium and Philodendron species. They grow Anthurium in both pots and hanging baskets lined with moss or mesh and filled with a bark, potting mix, charcoal mixture. As Emily explained in a private conversation at the 2008 International Aroid Show show in Miami she uses a mixture of 4 scoops of bark along with 3 scoops of medium Sequoia orchid bark and then 1 scoop of America's Best aromatic cedar mulch is added to the porous and very porous potting mix used at the garden (4 scoops) To that she adds 1/2 to 1 scoop of granulated charcoal. She mixes this in individual buckets until she has enough to fill the pot or basket. The mix is kept damp but not wet and especially the birds nest Anthurium forms (Section Pachyneurium) are allowed to dry out for at least a month each year since this is very natural in the rain forest. We adopted this mix many years ago but Emily also began to recently recommend adding a good helping of finely cut sphagnum moss to the mix.

Give the full details of orchids and anthurium plants buying, cultivation, growth, good soil for culturing, fertilizer, market etc