Anthurium ("Wonder Boy Dark" x "Doc Block") x 'Amy'

("Wonder Boy Dark" x "Doc Block") x 'Amy'

The seed parent has a story I still like telling. Another Miami roadside nursery pickup, this one came with a handwritten tag from Doctor Jeffrey Block himself, "Wonder Boy" noted right on it with a breeding date. Finding that felt like digging through a Goodwill bin and pulling out a Mickey Mantle rookie card. The breeder in question has, allegedly, been a little cagey about crediting the late Tim Anderson for his part in these lineages, so a discarded plant from that early batch calling out "Wonder Boy" plainly was a real find. It's a sturdy, magnificum-shaped plant and a generous seed producer, which is how we get here.

The pollen parent is 'Amy', named for my mother. Strong primary venation against a dark green lamina, distinctly undulate margins, a naturally occurring selection out of my own growing that made it through the IAS Cultivar Committee on its own merits. Funny thing is, neither of her parents would turn heads on their own - handsome enough, but nothing you'd pick out of a lineup. (crystallinum x magnificum) x (magnificum x nigrolaminum "Gigi"), for the record keepers. Sometimes the pedestrian plants are the ones worth paying attention to.

Put the two together and you get this cross: a rookie card of a seed parent onto a cultivar that snuck up on all of us, including me.