Anthurium "Justin" x ("Red Velvet Cake" x "Zara")

"Justin" x ("Red Velvet Cake" x "Zara")

"Justin" is the workhorse of the greenhouse, and I mean that fondly. I picked this one up from Tezula around summer of 2022, bred by a different Justin down in Tampa who'd left seed at SKG - the name alone sold me on the seedling. It's since gone on to be one of my most prolific parents, throwing more than 15 distinct hybrids, most of which carry forward its sublet subvelvet character. The actual makeup is (crystallinum x magnificum) x subsignatum, so there's a real pedigree buried under the goofy name. Some clones are floating around out there in other collections, so don't be alarmed if you see the name pop up elsewhere.

The pollen parent I paid too much for at the IAS Show & Sale back in September 2023, from the Dr. Jeffrey Block booth, and spent a solid year babying a runt before it decided to become a plant. It rewarded the patience - it's now a proper mother, throwing emergent leaves that swing from soft pink-brown to something closer to an arterial red depending on the light and temperature it's getting. It's already made a name for itself in a few other crosses around here.

Put the two together and you get a seedling with a workhorse for a father and a slow-burn glow-up for a mother. I'm curious to see which parent wins the argument.