Hello and welcome to the final part, part five of Diva Week. And today's plant is Alacasia Polly, a plant that certainly

poses some challenges for most of us mere mortal house plant growers. And today I'm joined by

Muraya of Instagram account Born Gardening to help you pick your way through

the minefield that is Alicasia Polycare. Muraya is a gardener in the wonderful city of Vachalona.

Did I say that well? Probably not. In Spain. And she is a dab had growing this plant, a member of the

Aroid clan with those veined leaves that look so stunning when you buy them and look so

terrible as they start to die. So where have we all been going wrong? Well, here's my chat with

Mirea so we can find out. Miraya, we are here to talk about Alacasia Polly, which I think

might be up there as the number one plant that people find a bit tricky to grow. It's a beautiful, beautiful plant, though,

and I can understand why everyone is so captivated by it.

Is it one of your favourites?

Yes, it is.

It is one of my favourites for me.

It's a plant that I associate with the tropics

and just takes me straight with the tropics and with this deep green arrow

shaped wavy-edged leaves, it's just mesmerizing. I mean, I can spend hours looking at it and it's unbelievable,

really, really nice. And I think that's why a lot of people want to have it in their houses.

Yeah, and it does seem that it's very widely available now. I think it must have been,

you know, being mass produced. And so everyone can get their hands on this plant now,

but not everyone can keep it happy. And the number of times I see a post from somebody saying,

my polly is dead.

What are the main causes of a dead poly?

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