Maplegirl...I don't know if you resolved your Calathea problem or not, I just noticed your thread. Cals love humidity. Humidifers work best, (for most plants) but misting and humidity trays help a lot, too. I allow soil to dry a bit between waterings, especially in winter. Never keep soil soaking wet. And don't overpot..in fact, Calatheas do much better in smaller containers. Stick your finger in the soil..if it comes out wet, don't water..if it comes out dry, (similar to baking a cake) give it a drink. They like bright light but no direct sun..since you're in Canada, a south or west window will be sufficient (in winter) They don't like heat aiming at them, (artificial heat) so keep out of the way of a heating vent, etc. Good luck, Toni

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.

Is it a yucca elephantipes? never water until you see new growth after re potting anything. They share the same growing conditions as succulents in the north. watering in winter once or twice a month. They need lots and lots of light, south-west facing window is best. Anything less they will struggle. Yes as mentioned photos will help.

I got this calathea four weeks ago, I've been watering it with rain water I collected once a week and it's not in direct sunlight. Almost a week ago I put banana peels in the soil to fertilize it, a few days after that the leaves stopped closing in at night and not it has just flopped over. It's breaking my heart please help me :'(. Ps I changed the soil and inspected the roots, there is not root rot as far as I can see.