Anthurium "Wonder Boy A" x ("Red Velvet Cake" x "Zara")

"Wonder Boy A" x ("Red Velvet Cake" x "Zara")

I'll admit I don't fully know what "Wonder Boy A" is anymore. I got it from Scott Cohen some years back, and whether he's working from the original Wonder Boy material or a self of it is a mystery I've made peace with. What isn't a mystery is that this plant throws wondrous emergent color and passes it on readily, sitting large and vigorous on the bench as another entry in Tim Anderson's long habit of turning relatively unknown species inputs into something worth talking about.

The pollen parent I paid too much for at the IAS Show & Sale in September 2023, off Dr. Jeffrey Block's table, and it spent a full year sulking as a runt before rewarding my babying with real growth. Now it's a proper mother plant, shifting its emergent leaf color with the temperature and light between a soft pink-brown and something closer to an arterial wound, and it's already lent itself to a few other hybrids floating around the greenhouse. This cross puts two known colorists together and just sees what happens.