How to pinch back peacock plant?

How to care for a peacock plant? Calathea makoyana needs bright, indirect sunlight, temperatures of 60-75°F (16-24°C), and high humidity. Water when the soil surface starts to dry, fertilize with a dilute, balanced fertilizer every 2-4 weeks, and pinch back the stems to create a fuller, bushy plant.

Interested in learning more about peacock plant care? If so, keep reading! The following information covers the different aspects of caring for this stunning houseplant to keep it beautiful and healthy.

As with many other houseplants, the peacock plant also has tropic origins which is one of the reasons it does so well indoors. It is native to the tropical forests of Brazil, found growing under the shade canopies of the tall, tropical trees.

The attractive foliage on the Calathea is what makes them popular with homeowners as houseplants. These tall, slender plants add beautiful color to your houseplant collection without monopolizing space.

Given their tropical origin, peacock plants are typically grown indoors where the temperatures are steadily warm all year round, but peacock plants can be grown outside in certain growing zones. USDA Hardiness Zones 10A to 11 are warm enough to grow the plants outside under the canopy of other trees or shrubs.

When growing plants in your home, provide the following growing conditions to promote strong, healthy plants.

Peacock plants are native to the tropical forests of Brazil, where they grow in the understory of the forest, where there is limited direct light at ground level. Because of this, they have lower light requirements than many other houseplants.

Place your peacock plant where it receives bright, indirect light. A north facing windowsill, or close to an east facing window will provide good light levels. In rooms that receive a lot of direct light, you can place your plant further from the window, or shield it from direct light with furniture, curtains or blinds.

Avoid putting your plants where they receive direct sunlight as this can cause bleaching of the leaves and brown tips.

Lower light conditions will result in slower plant growth, faded leaf color, and you may also see smaller leaves or large spaces between the leaves.

Tropical houseplants do well indoors because they prefer the same temperature range as humans. For best growth keep your peacock plants in a room where temperatures are between 60°F-75ºF (16C°-24ºC), avoiding any sudden drops in temperature.

Keep your plants in a spot where they are not exposed to drafts coming from leaky windows, opening/closing doors, or register vents blowing heat in the winter and cool air in the summertime.

In cooler growing zones, plants can be taken outside during the warmer spring and summer months as long as nighttime temperatures don’t drop below 55°F (13°C), or you bring them indoors at night. Place them in a shaded location or under the canopy of trees or other plants to keep them out of direct sunlight.

Peacock plants will thrive in homes with higher humidity especially where humidity levels are upwards of 60%. They do well in bathrooms if they can receive enough sunlight. The warm, moist air is reminiscent of their rainforest origins.

Humidity is one of the most important things to focus on to keep your Peacock plant healthy. If your plant is starting to show signs of brown leaf edges or tips, this is a sign of low humidity.

With calatheas, I think it is really important to monitor humidity levels to prevent any issues. I use a digital hygrometer, which allows me to adjust humidity levels as soon as I see them dropping.

To increase humidity, there are lots of options. Many people advise misting your houseplants, but this is far from the best way to reliably improve humidity. Try grouping your plants together, setting your plant in a tray containing pebbles and water, or use an electric humidifier.

I’ve written an article that looks at 10 ways to improve humidity that will help you improve humidity for your peacock plant.

Peacock plants like to have a growing media that holds a fair amount of moisture that quickly drains off excess water and provides good aeration to the roots. Most “all-purpose” commercial potting soils are suitable as they are formulated with those needs in mind. Be careful not to purchase potting soils specifically formulated for a given type of plant such as acid-loving plants or succulents; they have been formulated to meet a slightly different need.

Commercial potting soils are actually a “soilless” mix of peat moss, coconut coir, pine bark, and either perlite or vermiculite. Avoid using straight coconut coir or sphagnum peat moss in your containers; they retain too much water.

If you want to improve the drainage rate of the potting soil you purchase you can add extra perlite or sand. Simply mix the components together well in a larger bucket and then use the mix to fill your container when potting up your plant.

Getting watering and humidity levels right are essential for good peacock plant care. The trick with watering is to keep the soil nicely moist, but avoid letting it get soggy.

I like to water my peacock plant once the top of the soil starts to feel a little dry. I usually take my plant to the sink and water it thoroughly until water runs freely from the drainage holes. I let it sit in the sink for a few minutes until all of the excess water has drained out, leaving nicely moist, but not soggy soil.

During the winter when plant growth slows, allow the top half-inch of potting soil in the container to dry out before watering your plant again. Yellow leaves indicate over-watering and brown leaves mean the plant needs more water.

Water with room temperature distilled water or collected rainwater.  Fluoride in municipal water can damage plants. If you do opt to use tap water, let it sit for a couple of days to allow the chlorine in treated water to dissipate before using it to water your plants.

Read more about how to detect when your houseplants need watered in this article.

Fertilize your peacock plant every 2-4 weeks from spring through to early Autumn, when the plant is actively growing. Grows slowly considerably during the winter months, so fertilizing during this time is not required.

Calatheas are quite sensitive to over-fertilizing, so err on the side of caution. Use a liquid or water soluble, fertilizer made up at half the recommended strength or less.

Ideally, you should use a fertilizer preparation that contains more nitrogen, with an NPK ratio of 3-1-2, as recommended here. However, in practice, I have had great results using this balanced fertilizer, with equal amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

Unlike some houseplants, your Calathea doesn’t need much in terms of pruning. As the leaves age, they will periodically yellow or brown and then die. Trim off dead leaves with a pair of sharp, sterilized scissors, cutting them off where they join the main stem or at the soil level.

You may also like to prune your Calathea makoyana to maintain a more compact, bushy growth habit.

Your peacock plant should be repotted to a slightly larger container every 1-2 years, preferably in the springtime or early summer. Springtime is the best time to repot plants as they begin actively growing after the cooler winter months, and can bounce back from the shock of repotting quicker.

When repotting add new potting soil or mix finished compost into the mix to “refresh” the nutrient content and organic matter. Make sure to loosen up the roots if they are rootbound. Also, when filling containers with growing media do not create a “drainage layer” in the bottom of the pot. For a long time, this was a highly recommended practice, taught to new gardeners. It’s been proven though that this practice is more detrimental than helpful.

As water moves down through the soil profile via gravity, it stops when it encounters this drainage layer created by rocks or small stones. Before the water percolates into the layer, the entire potting soil must fill with water rendering the layer problematic instead of beneficial.

Peacock plants are propagated through division. When it is time to repot plants, carefully divide the crown and root ball into two or more sections. Then repot each section into its own new container with fresh potting soil.

Just after dividing plants, ensure the humidity is high until you see new growth.

Peacock plant care isn’t impacted too badly with disease and pest problems, although they do exist. As with many other houseplants, one of the biggest contributors to diseases and pests is overwatering so water plants only when they need it to help minimize infestations.

With both diseases and pests, monitor your plants frequently to catch problems early and then treat immediately to reduce the overall damage.

The main diseases affecting Calathea plants are root rot and Pseudomonas leaf spot.

The most commonly seen problem with peacock plant care is root rot, caused by overwatering, especially in the winter months. The roots then die back due to lack of oxygen or the overgrowth of a soil fungus. Soggy soils encourage the growth and multiplication of Pythium, Phytophthora, Rhizoctonia, or Fusarium fungi which spreads into the roots, infecting plants.

Healthy roots begin to turn brown and mushy as they perish, unable to take in nutrients needed for growth. As root rot progresses leaves turn yellow, wilt, or droop and then become mushy as well. Once symptoms are visible in the leaves the problem may be past the point of rectifying, endangering the entire plant.

The challenge with root rot is that it often goes unnoticed because it occurs beneath the soil surface and out of sight. In extreme cases when conditions are perfect, i.e. in pots without drainage holes, root rot can kill the whole plant within ten days.

If caught soon enough you can repot the plant, to try to save it. Remove as much of the infected soil as possible adding in fresh, clean potting soil. If root rot has spread significantly, dissect the plant, keeping only the healthy portions. If the whole base is affected, take stem cuttings from healthy foliage to propagate a new plant.

A bacterial disease, pseudomonas leaf spot causes reddish-brown spots on the leaves that may cause leaf distortion.

You can help prevent leaf spot by keeping the foliage dry when watering. If leaf spot appears, remove the affected leaves and treat the plant with a copper-based bacteriacide.

Insect problems are more of a challenge with peacock plant care, mainly if you have neighboring houseplants with aphids, spider mites, or scale.

Aphids are one of the most common insects affecting indoor plants. These tiny, pear-shaped insects attach themselves to the plant, sucking sap from the plant tissues, and then secreting “honeydew”. Symptoms appear as distorted foliage and leaf drop.

Remove aphids by wiping the plants with a clean, soft cloth or spraying the plants with a mild solution of water containing a few drops of dish soap.

These tiny sucking pests are found on the undersides of leaves, wreaking havoc on indoor houseplants. Spider mites feed on the fluids found inside the leaves of the peacock plant, piercing the waxy coating to access the internal fluids.

One of the biggest challenges with spider mites is their prolific nature; oftentimes a heavy infestation will occur, unnoticed, before plants begin to show physical symptoms of damage.

With an infestation of spider mites, leaves may be stippled with discoloration or turning yellow overall. Plants may also exhibit a fine, spider-like webbing between the leaves or at the base of the plant.

Scale is a threat to most species of shade and fruit trees, ornamental shrubs, and houseplants. The pests pierce leaves, stems, branches, and tree trunks to feed on the sap within these plant tissues, damaging the plant overall.

There are two different types of scale insects that infest peacock plant: soft and armored scale. Both appear as little brown bumps on the leaves with the soft scale being more prevalent. Insect sizes range from ⅛ to ½ inch in length; color, shape, and texture vary amongst different species.

Soft scale insects do not possess a hard, protective coating so they generate either a thin, powdery, cotton-like or waxy layer over their bodies for protection. These layers cannot be separated from the insect body.

Armored scale, on the other hand, creates a hard shield-like layer from shed skins and wax to protect themselves from natural predators and chemical insecticides. This layer can be separated from the insect body and tightly adheres the scale to the plant forming a waterproof seal.

Besides the notorious leaf drop, plants infected with scale exhibit yellowing leaves. The yellow spots appear on the tops of the foliage while the insects suck sap and chlorophyll from the bottom. Leaves may wilt, become stunted, and you may see decreased vigor overall in the plant.

I’ve written an article about the best ways to get rid of houseplant bugs naturally. This covers the best ways to get rid of a range of houseplant pests using natural remedies that really work very well.

Using sharp, long-tipped plant scissors, trim any damaged or dead leaves off Calathea as needed. The plant grows rapidly enough to need pruning at least once or twice a year. Always use sterilized tools to protect the plant from disease.

Pruning is one of the most overlooked parts of plant care. If a houseplant owner has heard of it, they may mistake it as a practice only needed for trees, shrubs, and outdoor plant life.

Yet almost all plants can benefit from a bit of pruning now and then. The benefits to houseplants, much like with trees or shrubs, include:

Some plants require pruning to grow well, but even those that don’t tend to respond well if trimmed with care.

In general, most plants can be pruned to remove damaged or dead material without ill effects. Methods of plant cultivation like bonsai require routine pruning to shape the growing material into a specific pattern.

For more, see our essential guide to calathea plant growth expectations at home.

When kept away from direct sunlight that stunts their growth, Calathea plants can grow rapidly in nutrient-rich, slightly acidic soil bases. However, they still tend to grow much slower than other houseplants.

Some varieties grow larger than others, with maximum size topping out around three to four feet for the biggest types. Most Calathea stay about 2 feet or under when fully grown.

This means there’s little need to keep them pruned just to help them fit into the home, unlike with some other houseplants. However, they will lose leaves over time to natural causes.

It’s also OK to trim a Calathea as needed to maintain the plant’s shape. If some leaves or stems grow faster than others, pruning can restore a rounded or more open shape to prevent crowding.

Calathea goes primarily dormant in the winter, but removing any dead or damaged material during that season is acceptable. Just don’t expect a rush of new growth to start until the days lengthen in spring and summer.

Focus on limiting pruning (much like repotting or propagating) to spring and summer for the fastest recovery and most significant growth burst after pruning. If your Calathea blooms, which is pretty uncommon among those cultivated indoors, cut the flowers off when the stem dries out fully.

Don’t expect to need to prune this plant more than once or twice a year, and potentially even less often than that.

As a smaller houseplant that only has thin, easily cut stems, Calathea is best pruned with small scissors and snips. Look for scissors designed for plant trimming with longer tips and handles to help you reach between crowded stems and trim out just a few leaves at a time.

Bonsai scissors are a good idea for larger Calathea varieties that can get up to three feet tall. The stems on these plants can be thicker and harder to cut, but a sturdy part of garden shears will still work.

Some Calathea varieties are easily split or separated when they get full-sized. A sharp trowel and a pair of gloves make quick work of this task.

No matter the tool, make sure to sanitize it properly between uses. Cutting more than one plant with the same shears can spread disease, but even bacteria can multiply on tools used just for a single plant. Mix a diluted solution of 1 part bleach to 9 parts water to soak the tools in for at least 30 minutes after each use.

Most Calathea varieties are known for their bright colors and bold patterns. It’s perfectly fine to cut off leaves that lose their color and fade. Unless the leaf is still dark green, it’s not contributing much to the plant’s health once it starts to yellow or turn brown.

The same is true for the occasional flower stalk. Once a leaf has become damaged or lost its color, remove it by:

Don’t trim just the leaf off and leave the stem. This still contributes to an overcrowded and messy-looking Calathea. When it’s challenging to cut the stem all the way at the base, at least trace it back as far as you can into the crown of the plant. Waiting until a leaf fully dries out can make it a little easier to trace back to the soil level.

Avoid removing more than 20% of the plant’s leaves, or 10% if it’s already struggling, to ensure it has enough foliage to continue photosynthesis.

Some Calathea plants look best loosely shaped into a mound or shrub form, while others with longer stems look good in general vase shapes. Since this type of houseplant needs high humidity and misting, don’t be afraid to remove overcrowded internal leaves to create more space inside the crown area. This allows for better air circulation and prevents fungal issues with the humidity.

Try trimming some of the smaller overlapping leaves from under the larger mature foliage for lower-growing mounded types. Removing a few layers of growth from the underside won’t change the look much but will help maximize nutrient flow to the more productive leaves.

Avoid fertilizing a Calathea right after pruning since they don’t need much in the way of nutrients usually. Make sure to stick to the usual watering schedule since drying out after pruning will be extra stressful on the plant. A little extra misting can help it recover as well. If you removed a lot of foliage for losing color or yellowing, consider adjusting the light levels either higher or lower.

Calathea only needs the occasional leaf removed to look its best. This houseplant doesn’t have the tree-type of form to work well as a bonsai. However, you can still give it a mounded or open vase shape with selective pruning. Just be sure to provide the plant with a few months to recover after each trim.

Calathea can be fussy plants and you might find that due to wear and tear or slightly bad conditions you need to prune your plant so that it can focus it’s attentions on healthy leaves.

If you do have leaves that seem to be dying or not doing so well but the plant itself seems fine then don’t worry. Your Calathea isn’t necessarily dying, you may just need to cut back on some of the dead leaves to stimulate growth with the healthy leaves.

There are different ways you can approach this depending on what you want to achieve with your plant.

If you have some leaves that are in quite a bad condition then instead of trying to save most of the leaf or even ignoring the issue, you may be better off cutting the whole leaf off so that the plant can focus on growing new healthy leaves.

Don’t worry if this is the case, it shouldn’t damage your plant and it will also make the plant appear healthier in general. Nothing is worse than looking at a plant with a load of dead leaves.

Simply cut the leaf with a sharp knife or a pair of scissors near the steam and discard the damaged leaf. Then your plant should turn its efforts to promoting growth in new leaves instead of trying to save dying leaves. Our favourite pruning scissors are Growneer Trimming Scissors as they are sharp, non stick and easy to use.

If the problem is quite small then you might not have to remove entire leaves and instead just give your leaf a bit of a trim. If your leaves are still intact but they’ve developed slight crisping on the tips then you can simply trim the tips rather than removing the leaf. Get a pair of sharp scissors and carefully cut away the brown areas of the leaf leaving the majority of the foliage still intact.

Not only will you be helping the plant but you’ll also be making your Calathea more attractive again because let’s face it, no one likes looking at crispy tips.

Propagating is a bit different to pruning but if the reason you’re wanting to cut back your plant is because it’s getting too big rather than because leaves are dying then instead of throwing away leaves, why not make your one plant into two plants?

Propagation is a great solution for a plant that is getting too big, and if you don’t want another plant, you can always just give it away.

Calathea propagation works best by root separation. So instead of removing a leaf and sticking it in water you’re going to be getting your hands dirty down in the soil.

Take your Calathea out of the pot and gently work away the soil until you can see the roots. As the soil breaks away you should start to see divisions in the plant and find shoots that can be separated from the rest of the plant.

Work at the roots gently so as not to break them and after a while you should be able to pull away a section of the plant. Once you’ve done that, place your new plant in it’s own plant pot, fill it with soil and you’re good to go. They might be fussy plants but Calathea are easy to grow if you take the time to check out their requirements.

With their ethereal beauty and deeply colored foliage, Calatheas are beloved for the spellbinding presence that they bring to any space.

They also have a special quality, known as nyctinasty: their sensitive leaves move in reaction to the light they receive. In the evening, they turn their leaves up, and during daylight hours, they lower them in a beautiful Calathea sun salutation. This behavior is why they’re lovingly referred to as Prayer Plants.

To keep this calathea happy indoors you’ll need to meet a few specific needs. But once you understand these requirements, caring for it is quite easy.

I’ll cover everything you need to know about growing and caring for peacock plant in this article. Here’s everything that’s up ahead:

Before we get started, if you’re looking for more general guidance on how to grow calatheas, be sure to read our complete guide to growing and caring for prayer plants too!

Peacock plant (G. makoyana) is an evergreen, herbaceous perennial often grown as a houseplant and loved for its fascinating leaf patterns.

Each leaf is variegated with a cream or pale green background. Contrasting against this are its leaf margins, veins, and large, alternating blotches radiating from the midvein – all of which are dark green.

The undersides of its leaves have the same pattern, but in purple and cream instead of light and dark green. The pattern on new leaves is lighter colored, gradually darkening as they continue to grow.

The pale background of this calathea’s leaf pattern has a wispy, feather-like appearance, perhaps inspiring this species’ common name “peacock plant.”

Unlike red-veined prayer plants, which have a matte leaf surface, this calathea has leaves that are glossy, and smooth leaf margins.

In addition to the intriguing look of this species’ pattern, the pattern itself has a raised texture, providing even more visual interest.

New leaves emerge rolled up, showing their purple sides. These slowly unfurl, revealing their green top sides.

The lighter-colored parts of the leaf’s pattern are somewhat translucent, and when backlit, you can see why these calatheas are also called “cathedral windows” – the effect is similar to that of light filtering through stained glass.

This calathea’s leaves are paper-thin and oval-shaped, growing to be four to eight inches long. Each leaf emerges from its own stem, rising from a clump of rhizomes in the soil.

Peacock plant has a bushy, upright, spreading growth habit, reaching up to four feet tall and wide, and forming new clumps which can easily be divided.

Its flowers are small, white, and inconspicuous, rarely appearing on specimens kept as houseplants.

Like its other prayer plant relatives, peacock plant has a fascinating daily habit known as “nyctinastic movement.”

When the sun is out, the leaves of these calatheas are held out either horizontally or at a downward angle.

However, after night falls, the leaves are raised more vertically with the tips pointing upwards, revealing their purple undersides.

This characteristic makes prayer plants a more interactive part of the interior than most other houseplants.

And this calathea’s raised leaves can serve as a prompt to us busy humans to settle down in the evening and start to prepare for rest, if we need reminding!

G. makoyana isn’t the only houseplant known as “peacock plant” – other species are sometimes (though less often) referred to with this common name too, including prayer plants G. veitchiana, and G. elliptica, potentially making communication about this species somewhat confusing.

But the confusion doesn’t end there!

There are other prayer plants with similar leaf patterns, which houseplant connoisseurs sometimes mistakenly identify as G. makoyana, such as yet another member of the Marantaceae family, Ctenanthe burle-marxii.

C. burle-marxii is a fairly close look-alike, but compared to the subject of our article, the ends of its leaves are squared off, giving each leaf a more rectangular shape compared to G. makoyana’s oval-shaped foliage.

C. burle-marxii also lacks the wide, dark green margins of peacock plant. It has a grayer background color, and more of a fishbone-style leaf pattern – which is why its common name is “fishbone calathea.”

G. makoyana is native to humid, tropical rainforests in southeastern Brazil where it grows as a terrestrial species, protected by the canopy of the rainforest from heavy rains and the full brunt of the sun.

This species is a member of the Marantaceae or arrowroot family, whose members are commonly called “prayer plants.”

Its relatives include the species in the Maranta, Stromanthe, and Ctenanthe genera, as well as other types of Goeppertia, which include rattlesnake plant and pinstripe plant.

You might know this species as a member of the Calathea genus, the taxonomic grouping in which it was formerly classified, rather than the Goeppertia genus.

But rest assured, neither of us are mistaken – it’s just that there has been some taxonomic juggling going on!

In 2012, many calatheas were reclassified botanically to their current genus, Goeppertia.

Now officially classified as G. makoyana, this species is nonetheless still widely referred to as C. makoyana.

If you’re talking to a scientist or science geek, go ahead and throw out the Goeppertia reference and watch your conversation partner’s eyes fill with deep respect.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for this species from a nursery or grower, the term “calathea” may be more likely to get you what you want!

G. makoyana received the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit in 1993, and while typically grown as a houseplant, it can also be grown outdoors in USDA Hardiness Zones 11 and 12.

Calatheas are propagated primarily via division and peacock plant is no different.

Since G. makoyana grows from clumps of rhizomes, these can be separated to make new specimens.

When looking at your calathea, you may notice more than one clump of stems – if so, that means your specimen can easily be divided.

If possible, each clump should have at least three leaves emerging from it.

If you determine that your peacock plant can be divided, here’s what you’ll need: one pot per clump, big enough to contain the rhizome clump, as well as some potting medium.

Remove the parent plant from its pot and gently pull apart the different clumps you want to separate.

Fill in the parent plant’s pot with growing medium to fill in the gap, and pot up the divided clump or clumps. You can refer to our potting instructions, coming up a bit later in the article.

Depending on how fast your specimen is growing, it can be divided about every two years, preferably in spring or early summer.

Peacock plants certainly don’t need you to sit and watch them all day long… unless that’s your prerogative – they are awfully pretty! But on the other hand, they are definitely not houseplants you’ll want to “set and forget.”

Here’s everything you need to know:

Your calathea-growing adventure is much more likely to be a happy one if you start off with a healthy specimen.

Before choosing a peacock plant, check for signs of disease or pests, such as discolored leaves or spotting. You’ll learn more about what to look for later in the article.

And if you’re purchasing a houseplant online, be sure to ask the vendor for a heat pack during the cold winter months. You may also need a cool pack during summer heatwaves for safe shipping.

Rather than starting off by deciding where your calathea will look best, first look for areas in your home where this species will be able to thrive.

You’ll want to situate this species in medium, indirect light, or low, indirect light.

If a south-facing window is your main source of light, situate the peacock plant several feet away from the window.

A bit of dappled, direct sun, such as sun filtering through deciduous trees, will be fine for your calathea, but avoid exposure to too much bright light which will make the patterns on the leaves fade, taking on a washed out appearance.

Peacock plant will thrive in temperatures between 60 and 85°F.

In temperatures hotter than this, it will struggle a bit, so you may need to reduce its light exposure from medium to low light, as well as providing it with more water to help it cope.

I move my prayer plants to the north side of my un-air-conditioned home during summer, where it is significantly cooler than on the south side of my home.

On the other end of the spectrum, these calatheas can be damaged by temperatures below 55°F, and can be killed by freezing temperatures, so be sure to protect this species during the winter.

In addition to respecting these temperature needs, avoid placement near any cold or hot drafts of air, such as one might find near exterior doors, windows, or heat vents – G. makoyana prefers a steady temperature instead of fluctuating extremes.

Proper watering is also essential to keeping your peacock plant healthy over the long term.

Prayer plants tend to be sensitive to impurities in tap water, so it can be helpful to water them with rainwater, distilled water, or filtered water.

Overwatering tends to be a risk for most houseplants, but that is less of a risk with this species which does not like to dry out completely.

Try to keep the growing medium moist but not soggy – your plant should be watered when the surface of the growing medium is dry to the touch.

However, if you let your houseplant go just a tad too long before watering it, that doesn’t mean all is lost. Give it a longer soak than usual and try to be more attentive next time.

In fact, this species is a good candidate for bottom watering. You can read more about this method of watering houseplants in our article.

If you struggle to keep your houseplants watered on a regular basis, here’s a tip: I find that setting alarms on my online calendar or making notes in my garden planner help me stay on target with my watering.

Since they originate in tropical regions, peacock plants require a fair amount of humidity, specifically between 40 and 60 percent.

When humidity is too low, you may notice your calathea’s leaf tips turning brown.

But if your plant has brown foliage and you don’t think lack of humidity is the culprit, be sure to read our article on troubleshooting brown leaves on prayer plants.

If you test your relative humidity and determine that conditions are a bit on the dry side, there are several ways you can create a more humid microclimate for your plant.

You may be able to simply group your peacock plant together with other houseplants to help increase humidity – but oh no, you might have to buy more prayer plants! (Ha ha!)

You can also mist their leaves every morning, using the same high quality water source that you use for watering them – either rainwater, distilled water, or filtered water.

Peacock plant grows best in a well-draining potting medium that also has good water retention, and a pH of 6.1 to 7.8.

If you purchase a potted calathea, it will most likely be growing in a medium containing a large amount of peat moss. But that doesn’t mean peat moss, which comes with an unfortunate ecological price tag, is the only choice for these houseplants.

Once you have your calathea’s basic growing requirements in hand, these plants don’t require much upkeep. Here are a few simple maintenance tasks you’ll want to know about:

You won’t need to prune your peacock plant to control its growth – these are pretty slow growers.

However, old leaves will eventually turn brown, and if the calathea gets a bit too hot or dry at any point, you might start to notice brown tips on some of the leaves.

Any discolored leaves can be trimmed off.

Just use a pair of sterilized garden pruners or scissors and cut off the brown tip, or if the whole leaf has discolored, cut the stem back close to the soil line to remove the entire leaf and its stem.

Prayer plants such as cathedral windows benefit from a natural, gentle approach to fertilizing.

There are a few different options available, and most fertilizers designed for tropical houseplants will work. But one method preferred by many gardeners is to feed them with worm compost tea from your own worm compost system.

Your peacock plant is not a fast grower, and will only need to be repotted once every two or three years.

You’ll know it’s time to repot if your calathea starts drying out too quickly between waterings, or if you notice roots emerging from the soil surface or from the drainage holes in the base of the pot.

The best time to repot is in spring when your peacock plant is putting on new growth.

Choose a pot that is just one size larger than your calathea’s current pot, and make sure it has drainage holes. You’ll also need a potting medium that meets the requirements discussed in the soil section above.

When you’re ready to repot, first gather your supplies. Placing some newspaper or a large baking sheet on your work surface will make cleanup easier.

Grab your new pot and place a small layer of the fresh growing medium in the bottom of it. Then remove your houseplant from its current pot.

Rub your hand along the root ball to loosen its roots up a bit.

If your calathea is not potbound, shake some of its old growing medium loose and mix it with some of the new medium. By mixing some of the old potting medium with the new, you will encourage your plant’s roots to easily spread into the new medium.

If the calathea is extremely potbound, you may not be able to free up any loose soil. In that case just focus on loosening up the roots at the outer edges of the root ball so the specimen can stretch its roots into the new medium.

Place the specimen into the pot, situating it so that there is about a half an inch to an inch of space between the top of the root ball and the rim of the pot.

Backfill with growing medium, tapping the pot lightly on your work surface to help the soil settle in, and adding more growing medium if needed.

Water in your calathea and return it to its usual location.

Be sure to check newly purchased specimens for signs of pests, and if you allow these calatheas to spend time outdoors during the summer, check them again when you bring them back indoors in the fall.

Mealybugs are small sucking insects that look like bits of white fluff. They might look innocuous enough, but they can sicken your calatheas as they steal valuable nutrients from them.

Mealybugs also leave sticky trails of honeydew in their wake, which can provide a fine opportunity for fungal organisms to set up camp as well.

If you notice mealybugs on your calathea, your first step should be to isolate the specimen from your other houseplants to avoid further spread.

Once that is taken care of, there are different ways you can deal with this type of infestation.

My preferred treatment is to use nontoxic neem oil. Or at least it’s nontoxic to humans and pets – it is lethal to mealybugs.

Like mealybugs, scale insects are pests that will suck nutrients from your houseplants, eventually causing them to wither and die.

These insects can be particularly hard to spot – at first view, you may think you are seeing signs of a disease rather than pests. They latch onto stems or leaves, and look like discolored bumps.

As with mealybugs, scale insects secrete honeydew as they feed on your calatheas, leading to an increased risk of fungal disease.

Like the mealybug treatment mentioned above, neem oil will also take care of scale. (It’s probably sounding even better to keep a bottle at the ready, isn’t it?)

There are many different types of scale insects that have different appearances – you can learn more about recognizing and controlling scale insects in our article.

Spider mites are another of the most common pests to show up on calatheas, and they can infest calatheas like cathedral windows if given the opportunity.

Look for signs of stippled leaves – foliage with many tiny, discolored spots.

Turn the leaves over and you might find extremely small, red dots on the leaf undersides – those are the spider mites – and if the infestation is severe, you may also see webbing.

In calatheas, spider mites are more of a risk if the plants are exposed to too much sun, so make sure to provide your calathea with the right amount of light.

You can learn more about detecting and controlling spider mites in our article.

Disease tends to be fairly infrequent in calatheas kept as houseplants, but if your plant looks out of sorts, here are some common plant diseases you’ll want to rule out:

As its name suggests, cucumber mosaic virus, similar to turnip mosaic virus, creates a strange yellow pattern on the leaves of infected calatheas that may look similar to a mosaic.

In addition to the telltale mosaic pattern, other signs of this disease can include yellowing veins, stunted growth, deformed leaves, and yellow spots on foliage.

Unfortunately, there is no remedy for this plant illness, so prevention is imperative. Be sure to sterilize tools and wash your hands before handling different specimens.

And while damage may only be cosmetic, this disease can be spread from plant to plant through insects such as aphids, so the best recourse is to dispose of infected specimens.

Have you noticed brown or tan lesions surrounded by a yellow halo on the foliage of your calathea? If so, Helminthosporium leaf spot may be to blame.

This disease is caused by fungal organisms such as Bipolaris and Drechslera species, and is a risk when temperatures are mild in damp conditions.

To prevent this disease, only mist the leaves of your calathea on sunny days and only in the morning, providing it plenty of time to dry before night falls and temperatures cool.

In order to manage an existing infection, use nontoxic neem oil. The same product you can use to control pest infections of spider mites, scale, and mealybugs is also a fungicide.

Is your calathea wilting despite having wet soil? That’s a strong sign that root rot is to blame.

Root rot is probably the disease you are most likely to encounter in your houseplants, but on the positive side, this is easy to prevent. Another potential sign of this illness is wilting, yellow leaves.

This disease usually occurs when calatheas are overwatered, or if drainage is insufficient. Plant roots can rot if they lack oxygen, and their inability to function deprives the plants of the water they need to survive.

Meanwhile, pathogenic organisms such as fungi and water molds can proliferate in the soggy conditions.

It can be hard to bring a plant back from root rot, so the best recourse is prevention – make sure the plant is potted in the right sized pot and in a well-draining growing medium.

Also, be sure there are drainage holes in your calathea’s pot, and never let it sit in a saucer of water for extended periods of time.

If your specimen has fallen victim to root rot and you’d like to try to save it, first identify the problem so that it doesn’t reoccur. You may need to repot into a smaller container, switch to a pot with more drainage holes, or just go a little easier on the watering.

Remove your calathea from its pot and inspect its roots. They should be firm – if they are mushy, they are rotting. Trim back any rotting roots and repot the plant into a new pot (smaller, if necessary) with fresh growing medium.

Water the plant just enough for liquid to run out of the drainage holes.

If you’re dealing with yellow leaves on your calathea but root rot doesn’t seem like it’s to blame, read our article about troubleshooting yellow leaves on prayer plants.

With good care and maintenance, you can put your peacock plant to many different uses.

This species is an excellent foliage plant, and with its upright, bushy growth habit, it can bring its good looks to your favorite pot or planter.

If you’re interested in creating a grouping of houseplants, this calathea can be arranged with other species such as orchids or begonias.