New babies

Lovely textures and colours. Good to hear you had an undamaged delivery too.

I hope I can keep them going, Kate - all new to me.

very nice Ange

Glad you approve, Paul. It will be interesting to see how many of my new houseplants are still going at the end of the year!!

Ange2,

Very nice collection of Calathea. I found Calathea a little tricky here. They don’t like the hard water here.

I had Calathea roseopicta growing under my pygmy date palms in the front yard. Unfortunately, they only lasted a few years and died.

Interesting, Delonix. I have been reading up about them and have been giving them room-temperature distilled water and so far, so good! I have added a few larger specimens to my collection, too.

Calathea orbifolia I think I had that long ago. I saw some garden photo or vid of that plant lining a walkway in socal. It must have been newly done since I think just about all of the Calathea- minus zebrina- are too tender. It looked good though,so maybe it is hardy there.

Ange2:

That’s a very good idea to water Calathea with distilled water. It’ll be good for preventing brown tip.

Stan,

The San Diego Zoo has a large collection of Calathea species growing outside for years. They do well outdoors there as understory plants. I’ve posted pics of these plants over the many years here on GoY. I can’t believe I’ve been posting plants on GoY for almost 15 years.

Stan,

I had this plant for years. It finally died after 6 years or so from the severe drought. I’m not sure if it’s a true Calathea, though.

https://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/125045-calathea-picturata-sleeping-peacock-plant

Lovely selection there Ange. I have a dehumidifier running in the winter and I use the water from that to water plants as it's room temperature, rainwater is good, but needs time to get to room temperature in the winter before giving it to them. I hope they do really well for you Ange.

I think it is, Delonix. I've just acquired a similar-looking plant recently.

Stan, I hope I can keep the orbifolia. It has such beautiful leaves when it gets to full size.

Thanks, Linda. If anything, I shall need to get a humidifyer for the number of these houseplants I am collecting!

Very nice collection Ange- inspiring to me to look for more of the Calatheas,here, its -some will grow outdoors,but most won't-!..so its take a chance on new types.

I had to Google,but the plants that resemble Calathea but are just barely cold tolerant for outdoors are the Ctenanthes. For me at least. Andy has a warmer winter climate.Summers too!

The Palmetum in Oakland has many huge Ctenanthes growing there. It’s a pretty common plant that grows outside in shade here.

This plant is sold by the thousands at big box stores.

https://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/183570-ctenanthe-lubbersiana-brazilian-snow

I don't see it up here like i used to Andy. I had to grow back my clump from a few stems left after GOPHERS ate nearly the whole plant. Now it's in a pot and what trails out and roots in ground is no worry...if they get that,the pot is always there for survivors.
The whole clan Ange are great collectors plants.

Stan, I understand that they can be tricky as houseplants, too and have quite specific needs.