Why Do My Calathea Leaves Look Like This?

by Lisa Steinkopf | Nov 3, 2020 | 0 comments

Last week, I was in my sunroom watering plants and found my ‘Beauty Star’ Calathea that obviously had been missed the last time I watered. It was hidden in a grouping of plants and was looking less than stellar. Below is what your calathea will look like if you forget to water. The rolled-up leaves aren’t dead, but they are close. (Excuse the pink glow on the leaves. I took pictures near my under-counter grow lights which obviously give things a slight pink glow….)

Rolled up, dry calathea leaves

: Rolled up dry leaves

: They roll up because they don’t have enough water

: These leaves are beautiful underneath

: Excuse the pink glow of the grow lights nearby

Some leaves didn’t make it

Unfortunately, there were lower leaves that were crispy and the rest of the plant would have followed if I hadn’t caught it in time. Actually, they are kind of beautiful.

: These leaves are not coming back

There is beauty even in the death of a leaf..

The casualties

Below is the pile of leaves I took off the plant that didn’t make it…..so bummed and disappointed in myself for missing this plant while watering.

These are the leaves I cut off that weren’t coming back with a little bit of water

Fixing the problem

I had another calathea this happened to and I wrote about it here. The difference is how I dealt with it. The plant in the previous post was in the potting medium it was planted in at the grower’s greenhouse so it was mostly peat moss. Usually, bottom watering is needed when the potting medium is predominately peat moss and shrinks away from the edge of the pot. This plant was already in my own potting medium and so that wasn’t a problem. I simply took this plant to the sink and gave it a good thorough watering. Below are pictures from the next day after it perked back up.