I found it in my grocery store, reduced to half price. I don't know why, it looks really very healthy. But I have no clue what it is, and what its growing conditions are. Can anyone shed any light on this for me?
They probably needed the room to bring in the Poinsettias? :-D I have no clue what it is... sure is a pretty thing though.
Are the leaves leathery? It might be something like this if they are? Asplenium goudeyi (Dwarf Bird's Nest Fern). Don't you just love mystery plants. Good luck
Good morning, what a great find, a beautiful specimen.It is a rattlesnake calathea, I have one outside in the shade and it has just finished flowering, I am sure someone will come along with the 'proper' name. Rattlesnake plant flowers. ( photo / image / picture from chocolate's Garden ) Not a good photo but shows where to look and what to look for.The little feathery flowers are about 1" wide.
Thanks all. Yeah, I googled the names you came up with, and that's sure what it looks like. I think you must be right, Cheryl. There is nothing at all wrong with this plant that I can see. It appears very healthy. It makes me sad though, there were more of them reduced, and I think they'll just get tossed if they don't get purchased. Makes me want to go back and buy them all. Luckily the care requirements for the plant are pretty simple and I can maintain the right growing conditions for it. As soon as my Thanksgiving insanity is over with, I'll take some time and get it out of the outer decorative wrap and see if I need to repot it or if it will do OK for a while in its original pot. Either way, it will get a nice new decorative pot to live in........one more reason to shop, yay!!
What a beautiful plant. I have never seen one before. Not something that the nurseries or grocery stores normally carry in this area. Now I will have to be on the lookout for one. That foliage is really striking.
Purple, yes they are: The camera has distorted the color somewhat. They look more brown in the photo, but IRL it's a lovely deep purple. Very attractive, and a wonderful contrast to the variegated green color on the top of the leaves!
Looks like you did some serious Thanksgiving baking, there on the table behind your plant. I can almost smell it all...m-m-m-m. About your calathea, you might want to be aware that the're not the easiest of plants. It's the kind of thing that looks so gorgeous people will always buy them, so the growers can produce lots of them, but in home conditions, often they don't do well for the long haul. I would give it as much light as you can without direct sun, and as much humidity as you can without getting water on the leaves, don't ever let it go dry, but don't keep it sopping wet either. At the least, it should stay nice for the holidays. And maybe it will be one of those that will last.
Baking, yeah. Thanks. Somewhere, I think in the Member's Gallery, there's a before and after pic, plus a couple of others of the Thanksgiving food-laden table. Thank you also for the info about the calathea. I have it sitting directly in front of one of my den windows so its getting lots of indirect light. No water on the leaves - check. I'm keeping it lightly watered. I still haven't found a moment to unwrap it from the grocery store decorative wrap and check it out further, mainly because I don't have a pot to put it in at the moment. But so far so good....it's not showing any signs, yet anyway, of doing the shocky thing that some of my houseplants do when I first bring them home, where they just look very unhappy for the first little while, perhaps look wilty, lose a leaf or several....that kind of thing. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it WILL be one of those that lasts. It's one of the most visually appealing houseplants I have, and I was so excited when I found it.....and at a deal, too! I'd hate to see it expire.
Oh my goodness, I must have not been hungry in the slightest when I looked at that. I didn't even see the pies! Wow!! Good eye (and info) FW!
I started this thread originally back in November when I first found this calathea in my grocery store. It seemed like it wasn't doing anything this whole time. I felt like its leaves had changed in color slightly, or the spots had gotten brighter, or something. But other than that, nothing. It also had little spots of discoloration on some of the leaves, and I felt like it was on its way out, to be honest, because it was just sitting there. It lost one leaf, and another seemed to be slightly browning at the edges, but other than that, it just wasn't doing anything. The leaves are sort of leathery anyway, so I kind of figured it might be dying or even possibly dead, but it's hard to tell with those leaves, which sort of feel fake anyway. But then, look! It's really hard to see, but on either side of the plant, coming up near the edge of the pot, two stalks! I'm assuming they're new leaves? Whatever they are, it's new growth, and I'm very, very excited!!
