Rose Painted Prayer Plant
by MaryAnn Fink
Conservation Specialist
copyright 2010
Rose Painted Prayer Plant (Calathea) sports beautiful leaf foliage with intricate veining and colorful leaf patterns. Frequently used as an foliage plant, she is a long lived colorful addition to the indoor garden / houseplant collection when the light exposure is bright but indirect or filtered. She is perennial native to Upper Amazon in North West Brazil, and tropical South America.
Like many members of the Marantaceae family, she shares the characteristic feature of folding up her leaves at dusk, as if ending her day in evening prayer, hence the common name, Prayer Plant. As the new day begins, her leaves return to a praise pose, a upward facing fairly horizontal position which allows the leaves to return to their blessed work. For me, this is a perfect reminder to start and end the day in prayer and that every day is a gift worth of praise!
Care factor rating: 3/ Houseplants: Site her an appropriate distance away from direct sunlight as that will quickly scorch her leaves. Water her with de-chlorinated room temperature water. (I use my left over drinking water from my night stand glass for watering. This manages both the water temperature issue and allows the chlorine to dissipate) To keep her moisture level even, allow the soil surface to only dry slightly between watering, I water a small amount every day!
She does do best in houses with humidifiers. Too low of humidity may cause her to have browning leaf margins. Remove any declining leaves as needed and only repot when she is heavily pot-bound! A petite but not picky eater, feed her only once every 4-6 weeks with any general liquid houseplant fertilizer mixed at half strength.
She is salt sensitive! To keep fertilizer from accumulating in the soil, this will cause the leaf edges to become ‘crispy’ or curled, flush the soil every two weeks and allow all run off water to drain away. This can be done about every 2 weeks. Avoid placing her where the furnace vents will blow dry air on her large leaves. This causes dried out leaf edges!
Although she seems quite resistant to most indoor pests-check all house plants now for spider mites, white fly, mealy bugs and fungus gnats! Keep in mind the cure can be just as hard on the plants as the problem so this is a good time to toss any seriously declining house plants and refresh your indoor garden with new additions!
(Calthea is shown above with another popular winter blooming houseplant Cyclamen).
Many flowering house plants are considered to have a primary season of interest and are considered temporary addition, to be thrown away when flowering stops. Although many have been managed to have a main focus period, some will adapt and can be very long lived with proper care. A few, such as cyclamen have hardy selections that can be planted outdoor! Follow this link for more information on hardy cyclamen: Hardy cyclamen
Conservation Specialist
copyright 2010
Rose Painted Prayer Plant (Calathea) sports beautiful leaf foliage with intricate veining and colorful leaf patterns. Frequently used as an foliage plant, she is a long lived colorful addition to the indoor garden / houseplant collection when the light exposure is bright but indirect or filtered. She is perennial native to Upper Amazon in North West Brazil, and tropical South America.
Like many members of the Marantaceae family, she shares the characteristic feature of folding up her leaves at dusk, as if ending her day in evening prayer, hence the common name, Prayer Plant. As the new day begins, her leaves return to a praise pose, a upward facing fairly horizontal position which allows the leaves to return to their blessed work. For me, this is a perfect reminder to start and end the day in prayer and that every day is a gift worth of praise!
Care factor rating: 3/ Houseplants: Site her an appropriate distance away from direct sunlight as that will quickly scorch her leaves. Water her with de-chlorinated room temperature water. (I use my left over drinking water from my night stand glass for watering. This manages both the water temperature issue and allows the chlorine to dissipate) To keep her moisture level even, allow the soil surface to only dry slightly between watering, I water a small amount every day!
She does do best in houses with humidifiers. Too low of humidity may cause her to have browning leaf margins. Remove any declining leaves as needed and only repot when she is heavily pot-bound! A petite but not picky eater, feed her only once every 4-6 weeks with any general liquid houseplant fertilizer mixed at half strength.
She is salt sensitive! To keep fertilizer from accumulating in the soil, this will cause the leaf edges to become ‘crispy’ or curled, flush the soil every two weeks and allow all run off water to drain away. This can be done about every 2 weeks. Avoid placing her where the furnace vents will blow dry air on her large leaves. This causes dried out leaf edges!
Although she seems quite resistant to most indoor pests-check all house plants now for spider mites, white fly, mealy bugs and fungus gnats! Keep in mind the cure can be just as hard on the plants as the problem so this is a good time to toss any seriously declining house plants and refresh your indoor garden with new additions!
(Calthea is shown above with another popular winter blooming houseplant Cyclamen).
Many flowering house plants are considered to have a primary season of interest and are considered temporary addition, to be thrown away when flowering stops. Although many have been managed to have a main focus period, some will adapt and can be very long lived with proper care. A few, such as cyclamen have hardy selections that can be planted outdoor! Follow this link for more information on hardy cyclamen: Hardy cyclamen
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