Thank you for replies. I came across Calathea roseopicta, but because it still looks a bit different I wasn't sure if that was it. The soil gets to be dry eventually. It's wet only if I've watered it recently. I watered it yesterday and today it's still wet, though. The pot and the soil are the original ones it came in, and it was fine in it for a while. Anyone has any ideas what I should try doing?

Hello all, ...from Europe again :). I hope it is all right to revive this topic almost a year later. Helen, I hope your plant still thrives. I happen to have some problems with my Stromanthe that I thought were rather similar. I took some actions already, it is too early to see the results though. Then I read through all of the above comments and still not sure. I got my plant around a year ago, it was rather small, and grew rapidly. It did have some very little dry ends since the beginning, nothing major. This is how it looks now. Constantly growing new, healthy leaves, but it only takes a couple of weeks tll they all become so dry on ends. I did remove alot of leaves already. I keep the soil moist and mist leaves every day, sometimes even a couple times a day. I give it showers monthly. The humidity in my flat is usually 50%. For a long time I believed it was the humidity issue. Could it be just that? On the other hand I do have Calathea lancifolia (which I believe has similar humidity preference) and it is doing fine. Maybe there is something wrong with the soil, thought, since it was planted in all purpose soil. Yesterday I repotted into a slightly bigger pot. Got rid of most of the soil while trying not to mess with the roots too much. They looked very healthy but started to overgrow the pot. I made a new mix (sort of). Since it is very hard to get the basic ingridents here, for "base" I used store bought soil with Osmocote fertilizer and it said "super light" on the package. They do not give actual information on the ingredients here though. It only said it is a 'peat soil' and is reach with humus. I am defnitely no expert on soil, all I can say it indeed was light and soft to touch, maybe it had some peat moss in it (?) and some perlite already, not much though. This is how it looks like, different to what it was in before for sure. To that I added alot of perlte (around 40 %) and just a tiny bit of orchid mix. I planted the Stromanthe with this mix I made in terracota pot. I am not sure if I did the right thing with all that. The soil soaked up alot of water. I would be very happy if anyone could comment on that.

Sorry, but I just don't have the time to read through ALL OF THAT MATERIAL to try to help you. Pls. do calm down, tho' you say you have -- panic never solved anything, tho' I can understand being upset to lose a plant. First & most important get it out of the glass container, into a normal pot W/ A DRAINAGE HOLE. That is a MUST, not negotiable. You were told untruths, this is NOT an easy plant, this is a moisture loving tropical, requiring high humidity levels, not so easily gotten in most homes. Where in the World are you located? The names of plants you posted sound foreign, like some where in Asia (maybe) or Africa. You need an easy starter plant w/ lower light requirements, maybe a Pothos, Sansevieria (Snake plant) or Aspidistra (Cast Iron plant) but all 3 are pointy, so your superstitious Aunt will not want them either. This is not a beginner plant, the pot must have a hole, the soil you have is unlikely to be the right kind for that plant. The rocks on top aren't helping anything (tho' I understand that maybe you like them). The soil is staying wet since there's no drainage hole by which to drain. Watering in small sips is usually bad for plants. I'm sorry, I regret that this sounds mean & severe, but you were taken advantage of. Vendors have financial motivation to mislead you & that's just what seems to have happened here. Pls. search online for easy, starter plants for a beginning gardener to start w/ & go from there. To research trying to fix this plant, since you know it's called a Calathea; Marantas are related & take similar care. I'd read up on them some more.

why would you need a humidifier ... do you have a forced air furnace that runs 8 hours a day??? .. like mine seems to in my MI??? how about you let it adjust to the stress of moving it indoors .. make sure it gets enough proper light ... water properly ... and lets see what happens .. try not to heap stress upon stress upon stress... if it were mine.. and it was just a leaf or two.. i would just snip them off.. i would not stress it by spraying some kind of goos on it .... ken ps: i would suggest its pretty deep in that pot.. but i wont.. because i dont want you stressing it by repotting it right now ... lol.. so ignore that .. lol ... but keep it in mind for a month before it can go back outside .. so it will settle down and get over that stress before you stress it putting it outside ... and dont foget to harden it off to outdoor light when it goes outside.. so you dont stress it then ... i hope you note the key word in all that .. lol ...