Anthurium "Ketchup Socks" x ("Wuhoo's First Night" x red crystal PM1)

Anthurium "Ketchup Socks" x ("Wuhoo's First Night" x red crystal PM1)

Credit where it's due: MalMal gave me the nerve to actually put "Ketchup Socks" on a tag, a name born from some nonsense said mid-live-sale that stuck around longer than it had any right to. The plant itself is more dignified than its name suggests. It's (red crystal x magnificum) x ("Greige" x red crystal), bred by Phil Iloo, and it throws red emergent leaves with anthocyanin that lingers stubbornly in the venation long after the leaf has hardened off. It's also bushier than most of the red crystal lineage plants crowding my greenhouse benches, which in practical terms just means offsets come apart without a fight.

The pollen parent is Paul Marcellini's "Wuhoo's First Night" x red crystal PM1, and it refused to play by the usual rules - normally a dark, velvety mother drowns out veining in the offspring, but not here. Fiery red emergents settle into thin neon veins as the leaves mature, stubborn in their own way.

Put the two together and you get a seedling with two parents that both apparently have opinions about how long their color should stick around. I'm curious to see who wins.