Calatheas

I don't fuss with them, I just put them where I can find room. I often move them around so they get a variety of conditions like dryness and light levels, and I hardly ever water them - the compost is bone dry very often. I only realise they need water when the leaves start to curl inwards. Then I soak them and they perk up again.

I've never seen any youtubes about them or read much that's been written. I'm not one for rules and regulations. Maybe you're fussing too much with them. Try plonking them in a corner somewhere like I do, and see what happens.

 

Nooooooo! Lol. Don't let the damn thing beat you. I've had my fair share of sulking prayer plants but I haven't binned any yet.

My Warszewiczii has been looking grim for a while now. Then the other day, just as the last remnants of hope were flickering, I noticed it is pushing up a new leaf!!

It's given me a smidgen of faint faint hope. And don't forget, it could just be going through some winter dormancy. Some slow right down through winter, and then start gaining momentum again around about, well, now!

What kind is yours, have you any idea?

 

You're evil, you are.

 

This is one of mine. It wasn't doing too well a few months ago. I painstakingly nursed it back to life. At one point I nearly put it in the greenhouse, until I realised I haven't got one!! Lol.

Look at it now, beautiful. Sometimes you've just got to embrace the challenge that these plants frustratingly present. If you're successful the rewards are plain to see.

https://youtube.com/shorts/iLGvblQ7xFI?si=f5jz6SixYsv4T4rt

 

My Calathea rufibarba which lives outside in The Jungle Room (a room with one wall, three open sides) and is quite neglected, blooming for the second year ...

 

Interesting! The only one in that family that I've had a lot of success with is Ctenanthe Burle-marxii, which looks a lot like @Michael Hewett 's Ctenenthe amagris - maybe alternative names for the same thing. This one has filled the pot and could do with splitting in the not-too distant future.

 

I had one flower not long ago, beautiful little white flowers. I thought it odd that the flowers came from the base as opposed to stems.

 

Yes, I agree it seems odd. I think I need to top up my soil.

 

Ctenanthe flowers don't come from the base - there's a flower stem visible top left in my photo, above (not open yet, and they're fairly unremarkable when they do, at least on this variety).

 

Here is a picture of my babies but its hard work keeping them healthy I have only just bought a new grow light it might help as we have had no sun.