Don’t use too large of a pot for your calathea! Rattlesnake Plant Care: How To Grow Calathea Lancifolia. It’s important to keep your plant out of the direct path of vents, such as air conditioning vents or heater vents. Calathea lancifolia is not a big fan of direct sunlight. Dark green patches on a light, silvery-green background, these stripes are both distinctive and beautiful. How to take care of your Calathea Rattlesnake Water. Some of these may be affiliate links, meaning we earn a small commission if items are purchased. Once you’ve bared the roots, look closely at the joints where the roots attach to the stems. Unlike spider mites, these are a bit less common indoors, but they can still appear. Avoid filling the tray completely, as that can make the soil too wet. Shop The Sill's collection of houseplants and indoor plants for delivery. The only reliable way to propagate calathea plants is via division. One thing you should not do is use leaf shine products on Rattlesnake plants; it does more harm than good. Source: Dick Culbert, Calathea veitchiana showing new leaf growth. A light sandy soil or a potting mix of one part perlite and two parts peat could work well. A big pot can make for soil that stays too wet, and can cause root rot. Pruning Calathea … You want a few leaves along with their attached root system. Used to wrap tamales in Guatemala, calathea lutea has long and paddle-shaped leaves. While indoors these typically grow to a foot and a half in size, outdoor plants can grow up to an extra foot of height. It requires temperatures of 60 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer. As a tropical, it’s also sensitive to the water’s temperature. Place a small amount in the bottom of each pot that you intend to use. An off-the-shelf African violet mix has good drainage, and the peat moss holds just enough water to allow the soil to remain moist most of the time. As well as causing brown leaf tips, overly dry air can result in the foliage curling up. So how do you get high humidity for calatheas without watering heavily? Here's how to care for them so they flourish. Finally, if your calathea is one of the type that does flower, be sure to trim off dead flower stalks once they’ve faded. Source: El Chepi, Downy Mildew: How To Stop This Plant Disease Before It Starts, Best Dandelion Killer: 9 Options To Demolish Weeds, Calathea, rattlesnake plant, cigar calathea, Cuban cigar, pampano, maxan, peacock plant, cathedral windows, striped calathea, pin stripe calathea, pin-striped calathea, rose-painted calathea, zebra plant, Calathea lancifolia, Calathea lutea, Calathea makoyana, Calathea orbifolia, Calathea ornata, Calathea picturata, Calathea roseopicta, Calathea veitchiana, Calathea zebrina and many others, Spider mites, aphids, mealybugs, scale insects, fungus gnats, root knot nematodes, burrowing nematodes, caterpillars, slugs, Pseudomonas leaf spot, psuedomonas blight, alternaria leaf spot, helminthosporium leaf spot, fusarium, root rot, cucumber mosaic virus. They like it to be around 75 degrees or warmer. Fertilize lightly every 2-4 weeks through the growing season. If your plant’s in overly-wet conditions for too long, it can suffer from root rot. Calathea makoyana, ‘Peacock Plant’, ‘Cathedral Windows’, Calathea ornata, ‘Striped Calathea’, ‘Pin Stripe Calathea’, ‘Pin-Striped Calathea’, Calathea roseopicta, ‘Rose-Painted Calathea’, Calathea orbifolia. All orders ship FREE to the lower 48 United States. A bright spot in a conservatory or a well-lit room away from the direct light in a window can work well too. I can speak from experience when I say that this is one hardy plant. Some other gorgeous Calathea species include Calathea makoyana, Calathea ornata, and Calathea roseopicta, among many others! While I can’t cover them all in one article, I can give you a good overview of this Marantaceae family plant’s more popular varieties. Simply dust away excess soil and start in a fresh pot filled with pre-moistened African violet mix. Using your fingers, gently pry apart small stem-and-root segments. The cigar reference is to its flowers, which are waxy reddish-brown or brown bracts that look like cigars. This disease develops in the soil itself. Watering. Calathea are non-toxic and pet-friendly. You can feed the plant monthly during the growing season as part of your rattlesnake plant care regimen using a diluted solution of a balanced, water-soluble fertilizer. It has wider stripes than the pin stripe calathea mentioned below. Lighting (either too much or too little) can also be the culprit. Let’s get on to what it is and how to grow it! If you can give this plant the humidity, warmth and filtered sunlight it requires, the bold markings on the rattlesnake plants foliage are sure to impress any visitors. This process is called nyctinasty. Moisture will wick up through the cloth and into the soil as needed. With psuedomonas leaf spot, water-soaked spots will form on your plant’s leaves. Opting for distilled water is safest. Use distilled water for this purpose. If you have other plants that are susceptible, it can spread to them. Some cultivars even have a third layer of dark green forming a third leaf-shape in the center of the oval-like, pointy-tipped leaf. Learn how to care for most varieties of Calathea! Ensure it’s well-draining and that you don’t overwater. With many vivid variations, this leafy plant can be a perfect addition to your living space. Start by moistening some African violet potting mix. A key consideration for any calathea plant is proper lighting, and the rattlesnake is no exception. I created Epic Gardening to help teach 10,000,000 people how to grow anything, no matter where they live in the world. Even the undersides of the foliage are eye-catching with their beautiful purplish-red tones. Article by Plant Care Today. They are extremely sensitive to sudden temperature shifts, and if your plant ends up in the path of the air conditioner, disaster may strike! Although this plant is often seen growing in shaded outdoor landscapes in Hawaii and some southern parts of California and Florida, it is most commonly kept as a houseplant or in greenhouses or terrariums. Where calathea orbifolia diverges from other calatheas is in its size. Because average room humidity is less than the tropics, you … Avoid stone chip mulches especially, as the calathea plants don’t seem to like them at all. These can be a major danger for any houseplant, but they seem to especially like these lush tropicals. Calathea plants prefer to grow in shaded rooms with indirect light. When you repot, use a pot that’s only an inch or so wider than your existing pot if you’re trying to encourage growth. 1.5k. Then, carefully remove your calathea from its existing pot, using your fingers to dust away excess soil. Be sure that your plants are kept out of drafty locations and away from vents or other air sources. Calathea lancifolia (Rattlesnake ) Calathea concinna (Freddie) Calathea ornata (Pinstripe) The main type that you’ll see most places have beautiful dark green leaves with colorful markings. This shouldn’t be confused with the other zebra plant, Aphelandra squarrosa. Calathea lutea’s leaves are huge, sometimes reaching a meter in length. Source: Operating System, Calathea ornata. Older leaves can turn yellow or brown with age. Most urban dwellers know the struggle of finding the perfect plant that not only adds greenery to your indoor space but … Many new calathea owners discover that their leaves seem to curl or roll. The problem with this blight is that the specific species of Psuedomonas bacteria hasn’t been identified, so there’s no treatment established for it yet. The water that drains through the pot will remain there and help to create the moist conditions that they like. The Rattlesnake plant is also sometimes known as Calathea insignis. But if Fido or Fluffy decides to snack on your houseplant, they shouldn’t have lasting damage from it. Mature specimens can have leaves between 15″ and 35″ wide, and grow to several feet tall outdoors. Tiny yellow flowers appear between these bracts, but the bracts are where it derives the name! Avoid wetting the leaves directly, and only water if the soil feels dry to the touch in the top inch or two. This bacteria may remain in the soil, so dispose of that as well. This plant demands to be moist at all times, but not "wet" or sitting in water. For a Calathea to thrive as a house plant, high humidity, warm temperatures and regular watering is needed. As with other calathea varieties, you should dust the Rattlesnake plant’s leaves at least once per week to get rid of the dust and prevent spider mites from placing their cobwebs. Repot in fresh, pre-moistened potting mix. You can also regularly mist your plant or bring them into the bathroom whenever you are showering. Calathea is a genus of neotropical rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plants; members of which are referred to generally as Calatheas. ‘Prayer plant’ is a colloquial term that refers to members of genus Maranta, to which genus Calathea is closely-related. Use an appropriately balanced water-soluble fertilizer to feed the plant during active growth seasons, which run from the spring through the fall. Others prefer a blend of 2 parts peat moss, 2 parts perlite, and 1 part potting soil or fine compost. Where you situate your rattlesnake plant can make a huge difference in terms of its growth and health. Be sure the soil is moist before fertilizing. Calathea makoyana has earned the Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society. Aphids are also easily controlled by either of the two above treatments, although neem oil is a bit more effective. You don’t want it wet, just damp to the touch. Source: CabbageRoseCat, Insect damage to calathea picturata. As the leaves mature, the lighter tones tend to turn white, where the dark green remains deep and vivid. Rattlesnake Plant striking appearance, prayer plant relative, leaves with alternating dark green ovals, deep purple underside. Sterilize your pot with a solution of 1 part bleach to 9 parts water. One thing which is not advisable with these plants is to mulch around them. The plant gets its name from the lance-shaped foliage … If you can find it, it’s worth growing it just for the coloring! This makes for a delicate balancing act at times. Place your pot over a pebble tray with the material dipped into the water. You want the soil to provide extra humidity through evaporation. Allow the top 2 to 3 inches of soil to dry before watering. Some forms of caterpillars will happily eat calathea leaves. While calatheas will not be killed by this disease, they are carriers for it, and it can be deadly to other plants. This calathea plant tends to grow much larger than the average calathea at 6-10′ in height outdoors. This tropical calathea species is native to the rainforests of Brazil and gets its common name from the distinctive decorative markings that are displayed on its leaves. The underside of the leaves has a distinct purplish hue which is similar to that of a rattlesnake plant. The stem itself can have a purple or pinkish hue, and sometimes that coloring will carry into young leaf bands. To solve this, allow your tap water to stand overnight before watering so the chlorine and fluoride can evaporate. Jagged yellow patterns will alternate through your plant’s leaves. Then replant in sterile soil, and do treatments of copper fungicide once per week for the next month to be sure the disease hasn’t spread. It takes some practice to figure out what your plant’s telling you, so be patient! 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