Looking for help on the care of Stromanthe 'Burl Marx'

I posted this in the Indoor Plants forums first, but thought I would post again here. I'm hoping someone here has experience with successfully growing Stromanthe. I have one I purchased at Stop and Shop some months ago and it's suffering. The variety is Burle Marx. It was beautiful and full when I bought it, and now it's quite sad, so tonight I looked up instructions on how to care for it, and it looks like it's not an easy one. Seems it likes pretty much moist, tropical conditions. My room where it is is generally warm, close to 70 most times, not usually below 65, but it's not humid (except during humid days in the summer). The plant isn't in direct sunlight, and I keep it moist. I have been watering with cold, hard water, though, which it doesn't like, so I'm going to get filtered water for it and keep at room temp. I have also put stones in the tray for it to sit on, so there can be water in it to provide humidity directly under it. I'm also going to start misting it on a regular basis. I want it to be happy and thrive. If this one ends up dying, as it might, I will try one more time with it. Hopefully I can get it on the road to recovery.

Karen

Here is a picture of it now.

No expert nor much experience here. However, I purchased this plant recently from HD. At first it drooped a little and has never had more than 4 leaves. Yours seems to be thriving. I have personal discipline for all of my plants both in ground and in pots. I continually groom them for any dead or dying growth. I have done that for this plant and everytime I cut off a sick leaf, another new healthy one appears almost overnight. It is presently in my little Rion 6X8 greenhouse and will have to struggle with all of the other tropicals I have here in zone 8a. Hope someone will show up that can advise both of us.

Christi

I think these plants just have to come when they want. I'm was down to one leaf all last winter. Then this spring it started shooting up leaves. Then it hasn't changed since this spring. I guess I'll have to wait until next spring to find out...

Karen,
I just wanted to say your plant looks pretty healthy to me! I took this shot when I was in Brazil recently. It does seem to like a lot of humidity as it rains almost everyday there. These were in a mostly shady spot too. Good luck!

Christi, yours does look very similar to mine. You think mine is thriving? You should have seen it when I first got it. It was very full and lush. Now has probably 1/4 of the leaves it had before. So sad!

Rob, those plants in Brazil look nice and lush. Yes, the Stromanthe is a Brazilian plant, and does like the humidity, which I don't have in my house. I'm going to try misting and watering with filtered or distilled water, as our water is hard water, and it doesn't like hard water. I might get a bigger tray for below that I can keep more water in to up the humidity level in it's general vicinity, but I can't let the pot stand in the water, as that would be too much moisture for its roots.

Karen

hmmm. that one does not look like stromanthe, but rather a calathea. They are "cousins" , meaning both on the Maranta family so care for stromanthe or calathea would be similar. Humidity is a must, like with a mister, because strangely if soil is too moist they rot. I'm horrible w/ house plants but I believe that is what it would take. I grow stromanthe and calatheas outside but I'm in a much warmer area than yours, so not too hard to care for these.

Just before I finished posting, I went and googled Stromanthe Burl Marx and also googled Calathea Burl Marx and guess what: I saw pics of plants like yours in both. But I really would say that is calathea as calatheas have oval leaves, whereas stromanthes are pointy leaves.

Vossner, thanks. I just googled calathea, Burle Marx, and you're right, that's exactly what it is. In fact the first entry I checked said that it is often listed as Stromanthe, as well as Ctanthe and Maranta. Another source said that botanists say that it belongs to the Maranta family and is not a type of Calathea. This leads me to believe there is some confusion over the correct classification of this plant.

So I believe I'm giving it somewhat more water than it needs. I will cut back on the watering but give it regular misting and a humidity tray. Hopefully that will do the trick.

Here's a pretty relative called Calathea zebrina (zebra plant). I would like one of these.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44508342@N00/775150728/

Karen

confusion yes, I think the old name was cthanthe (or however it's spelled). It is in the maranta family and I don't know why these botanists feel compelled to confuse me by changing names every other day.

glad I could help, or maybe I introduced you to the confusion, lol.