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Getting interested in decorative plants can be something of a slow burn, but for those with a passion for gardening, it’s a thrill that can’t be beat.

“It’s something that you can’t describe with words,” gardening enthusiast Erni Jos Soeleiman said.

This 53-year-old employee of a government-owned company discovered her hobby when she was still at university. She said gardening was perfect for people who wanted to escape the grind of city life. Living in Jakarta, she said, can be stressful and depressing.

“Just looking at those green and beautiful plants makes me feel happy and peaceful,” Erni said.

Among her many plants, she has a special affection for anthurium. She became interested in the variety about 10 years ago while looking for a new addition to her garden. Hitting upon anthurium, she found it a perfect indoor decorative plant.

“If you put one big anthurium inside the house, it will give a green feeling to the whole family.”

Anthurium actually refers to a genus that spans some 600 to 800 species. It is endemic to the rainforests of Central and South America, but some varieties grow in more arid climates. Its flowers grow along a sort of “spike” that can take numerous shapes. The leaves often grow very broad, as the plant lives among the towering trees of the rainforest and must compete for sunlight. Some varieties even live on other trees, their roots hanging all the way down to the ground.

Not found in nature in Indonesia or anywhere in Asia, Andi Wijaya Suseno, general manager of Toekang Keboen nursery in Tangerang, said the plant was widely developed as a decorative variety in the last few years, reaching its peak of popularity in 2007. Before that, it was largely unknown here.

Anthuriums rocketed in price as their popularity boomed, Andi said. One good-quality plant could go for Rp 50 million ($5,400) at nurseries in Jakarta. The better ones even fetched Rp 100 million to Rp 200 million, he said.

But with the jump in prices came a jump in supply, which flooded the market and brought the plants back to an affordable level, Andi said. “Now sellers are already considered very lucky to sell anthurium for Rp 1 million a pot.” The plants are available in almost any nursery.

Erni said she had several offers on her own anthurium plants for Rp 5 million to Rp 6 million each. “But I refused because I don’t garden for business.”

Erni said she doesn’t care if anthurium is no longer a famous plant. Saying that money can’t buy her happiness, she said she’ll keep her anthurium plants.

One unique quality that makes anthurium so sought-after is its big and green leaves. The main reason for its massive price tag, Andi said, is that it takes 10 to 15 years for an anthurium plant to grow its leaves to their impressive size of one to two meters long.

“The bigger the leaves, the more expensive one anthurium can be,” he said.

According to Andi, there are many types of anthurium in Indonesia, the results of cross-breeding done by many plant breeders, mostly located in Central Java. These types were bred to accentuate the differences in the various types of leaves of each anthurium.

The jemanii anthurium plants have wide and thick leaves, while the famous “wave of love” has coarsely toothed edges. Other types include the hockery, with its long, oblong leaves, and the keris, with leaves that resemble the shape of Indonesian traditional daggers.

Andi said that in buying anthurium, people should look for one with leaves that are fresh-looking and have perfect shapes.

With five anthurium plants in her house in Tebet, South Jakarta, Erni keeps the rest of her collection in her other house located in Ciawi, Bogor. Erni utilizes the 300-square-meter area of her weekend retreat as a simple green house made of wood and other environmentally friendly materials. There, she grows more than 15 anthuriums along with many other decorative plants.

“For years, it has become a weekly routine with my husband to come here and do the gardening every Saturday morning,” Erni said.

Though it takes time for it to reach maturity, Erni said that anthurium is not hard to grow. On the contrary, it’s quite easy. “All you need is a lot of patience.”

The plants must receive plenty of sunlight, but not too much. Erni usually puts her anthuriums in the shade, below the bigger trees or under a gardening net.

She added that you need to water the plant adequately and give some organic fertilizer if needed. “You also need to keep the soil softened to make some space for the root to breath.”

The young anthurium might be quite fragile but, “once it gets big, it won’t easily die.”

She said one of the most interesting things of growing an anthurium plant is that you can’t predict what kind of leaves it will have.

“It feels so satisfying when the plant gives you the perfect leaves.”