Calathea, the most gorgeous and often most disappointing plant purchase new plant parents make.

I feel like whenever I take a new plant parent plant shopping, they always go up to the calatheas

because of course they're so gorgeous. Why would you not want a plant that looks like it's painted

in your home? But they can be super difficult. The leaves can curl. They can brown.

And that's why I brought the director of Glass House horticulture at the New York Botanical

Garden on the podcast, Mark Hatchadurion, a couple years ago to talk about Calatheas and prayer

plants specifically and how to care for them and troubleshoot when

they become the dramatic divas that they are. From crispy leaf edges to humidity hacks to

understanding these mesmerizing moving leaves, Mark is such a great educator. I absolutely adore him.

He has been on the podcast many times. So for today's Best of Growing Joy series,

I knew I had to reach way back into the archives of Growing Joy to republish this episode

because it deserves to be listened to by all of our new listeners who might have missed it the first time around.

So without further ado, here's Mark and his incredibly

informative episode on how to keep your prayer plants alive.

Welcome to the Growing Joy with Plants Podcast, where we not only learn how to care for

plants successfully, but how to simply and

affordably use our plant babies to cultivate more joy in our lives by doing so.

I'm Maria, former plant killer turned happy plant lady, author of Growing Joy, the Plant

Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness, speaker, podcaster, and most importantly, your new best

plant friend.

On Growing Joy with Plants, you'll find conversations about house plant care, gardening new best plant friend. On growing joy with plants, you'll find

conversations about house plant care, gardening tutorials, and wellness through the lens of plants.

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