Large leafed indoor plants are some of my favorites; I have several varieties, and a list of others I would like to add to my collection, but there is one that I have loved for some time now, and have found it the most difficult of plants for me to keep.
Calathea Orbifolia.
To be honest, all calatheas have been difficult for me actually, including the Calathea Warscewiczii that I inherited from my sister (THANK YOU FOR THE PLANTS!). It is just about dead and I'm about to repot that sucker and start from scratch with what I know just to try and bring it back from the brink. But the plant I really love is the Orbifolia, and I HAVE to figure it out! It has the most beautiful wide dark leaves with silvery stripes running through it, and I love how full it is, just like my monsteras.
The first Calathea Orbifolia that I purchased was a little tike with about ten leaves on it, none larger than the palm of my hand, and it had a new curled up leaf getting ready to pop out. I was so sure I would be able to keep it alive, especially after raising a lemon tree from a seed, keeping and propagating four vanilla vines into twelve long vines, and watching my first cacao tree branch out into a true mini tree. I had raised difficult tropical varieties of plants in the cold of Connecticut, Oregon, and then into Utah. My knowledge is not complete, but how hard could a plant bought from hardware store be?
Foolishness does not come close to how bad my choice was. My understanding of this plant has been tested over and over and over again, and I found that I had not prepared sufficiently before buying it. Obviously this was an impulse buy, and later I found out while doing research on my then dying plant, that though it is being to be sold commonly, it really is not happy in dry climates, climates that get cold at all, too little sun, any direct sun, the soil must hold moister but also must drain very well, needs fertilizer ONLY during growing season (which varies depending upon your climate), and any fertilizer that is given must be in extremely low doses once a month, plus if you give it too much fertilizer or fertilizer out of season it will hate it. Humidity MUST be above 50%, preferably higher, and temperatures preferred between 65 degrees Fahrenheit and 80 degrees Fahrenheit, but likes life closer to 75 degrees. Also, filtered or distilled water is a must, nothing else will work.
In essence, if I screw up any of that above my plant will not grow, will start to die, and will shrivel up. Even if I do it all right it might still shrivel up. Or so sayeth the experts online.
Pretty much I have a love hate relationship with this plant, because I've had the one for a year now. A YEAR! And for the first time I watched one of it's leaves grow taller, uncurl and perk up. I had a humidifier on it for most of that year, it took forever to figure out what kind of light it actually wanted, because it doesn't want deep shadow but at the same time it's leaves would yellow and the whole plant would throw a temper tantrum if it ended up with ANY direct light. I finally got into a better habit of watering it with filtered water, which is somewhat annoying, but all my plants are happier with it, so it takes almost an hour to produce the filtered water enough for all the plants and water them. Oh well, at least they're all thriving! Kind of...
Anyways, I've finally added to my plant a plastic base with rocks in it for the pot to sit on and a bunch of water in with the rocks to raise the humidity level. I have a humidity/temperature reader right next to the plant just to keep an eye on it. I've found a spot in my house that the plant seems to enjoy sunlight-wise. Now I just wait, right?
While waiting... I bought another Calathea Orbifolia from the grocery store of all places. They really shouldn't sell these at regular stores, it just brings depression into a person's life when they buy them then watch them die within the month. This particular orbifolia is about four times the size of my current baby; sometimes if you buy a more mature plant it has a better chance of surviving. I've had it only a few days now and it seems perky and has a few new curled up leaves waiting to climb upward and open as well.
I put it in my normal mix for regular potted plants that need some extra drainage; a mixture of basic indoor potting mix put together with a cactus mix. The potting mix allows for proper nutrients and will trap moister because of it's material, while the cactus mix breaks up the potting mix into moister loving clusters that the plant enjoys, rather than allowing it to be one giant soggy mess. I've found great success in this mixture with most my plants, including my fruiting tropicals and my normal house plants, such as my philodendrons, pothos, maranta, and a whole slew of other ones. How I cover my plant's individual needs is through fertilizers, water pebble trays or humidifiers, and placement to sunlight. Almost all of my plants are also in ceramic or glazed ceramic pots depending upon their needs.
Back to the Calathea Orbifolia; I have two now. A baby plant and a 'teen' plant. The teen will be my test subject now. Transplanting it from a plastic pot into a clay pot has occurred, with a nice mix of Audrey's custom soil blend, a plastic pebble and water tray placed beneath. Let the experimenting begin! The first one is with fertilizers; I usually trust Logee's suggestions on general care and fertilizers, which for Calathea in general they suggest a 15-15-15 or lower balanced fertilizer. I've bought a 10-10-10 to try out since I couldn't find a 15-15-15 at my local store. They also suggest a water-soluble fertilizer. Mine is not, but I can always dissolve it before adding, or I can follow some suggestions and add the sprinkling of fertilizer farther away from the base of the plant so as not to burn the root system.
I really want to see a tiny bit more growth out of the plant first, showing that it has adapted to it's new pot and position in our home, then add the fertilizer a tiny bit at a time. I'll try to keep record of this experiment, especially since I want to figure out how to grow and propagate these tropical varieties in a colder climate. I'm sure it can be done!
As my two Calathea Orbifolia grow or decline I will add updates. I can't help but want to figure this out, maybe because it's a puzzle, maybe because of my pride at having kept everything else alive and flourishing, or maybe it's just because I really like this plant. Maybe it's all those reasons, either way I'm going to keep at it until I get it right!
Update: my Calathea Warscewiczii was dying, I decided to pull it out of the pot, double check it's roots for rot, separated it into three parts from the dead section, found that it was gobbling up water VERY quickly, potted it into three different pots, and am now waiting. They aren't very happy, not even after four days. I think I'm going to have to scrap this experiment, but I have one more thing I want to try; I'll pull one out and put it in a vase with water as if rooting it again. I think I might have some luck with it, but only time will tell. They look terrible right now.
