Calathea Orbifolia

The Orbifolia is always a popular Calathea, thanks to its beautiful large orb-shaped foliage. The bright green leaves are adorned with silver stripes and can get up to 30cm wide, making her stand out amongst any plant collection.

How to care for your Calathea Orbifolia:

Light: Like most Calathea, it wants a good amount of light but never direct sunlight otherwise the foliage will burn. If the light is insufficient, it will stretch and grow lopsided towards the light. An Orbifolia that's happy about its lighting situation will be reasonably compact and round.

Water: Watering is the trickiest part about the Orbifolia, but it is a good plant for the "sticking your fingers in the dirt to see how dry it is" method, which anyone can do. It never wants to be completely dry, the foliage will wilt and develop yellow/brown marks on the edges. But as with most plants, over-watering will lead to root rot. Ideally, you want to keep the soil moist as much as possible.

Regularly checking the soil moisture is required at first until you figure out the right balance for your environment. Whether you decide to water by pouring water on the top of the soil or by flooding the whole pot with water, make sure that the soil is evenly saturated. Then check by sticking your fingers in it once every 1-2 days, if the soil is still moist enough to stick to your fingers then it is okay. Once the top 1-2cm is too dry to stick to your fingers, it could do with some water. It's best to use distilled water or rain-water, the fluoride in tap water can cause brown tips on the leaves. Your Orbifolia won't suffer immensely with tap water, but avoid it if possible.

Humidity: Your Orbifolia requires humidity above a minimum of 50% and ideally above 60% and a constant warm temperature, 18°C - 24°C is best and it won't like going below 16°C. Avoid blasting it with air conditioning or hot/cold drafts. 

Fertilizer: Feed with a balanced fertilizer at 1/4 the strength of what it says on the bottle. Once every 2 weeks during Spring and Summer. The Orbifolia doesn't like nutrient build-up in the soil, so flush the soil with fresh (distilled) water once or twice a year. 

Comes in a 14cm plastic nursery pot.