Slim upright leaves striped in two shades of green
Slender, pale green leaves ruled with dark stripes, standing up in a tidy clump. They lift and close at dusk, so it looks different at night than it does at breakfast.
Patterned prayer plants, safe around cats and dogs, hand delivered same day in Brisbane
Slim upright leaves striped in two shades of green
Slender, pale green leaves ruled with dark stripes, standing up in a tidy clump. They lift and close at dusk, so it looks different at night than it does at breakfast.
Wavy leaves marked with dark ovals, purple beneath
Long, wavy-edged leaves painted with alternating dark ovals, and a burgundy underside that shows whenever they lift at dusk. It's the pattern people stop and ask about.
Each calathea we send has its own leaf pattern, so the choice usually comes down to which one suits the room it's going into.
A calathea is the right call for someone with a cat or a dog, and for anyone in an apartment or an office where no window gets direct sun. Bathrooms and bedrooms suit them too, because the air is a little more humid. That combination makes them a natural housewarming plant gift for a new apartment, and they work just as well as a thank you plant or as a get well plant for a friend recovering at home.
Yes, every calathea is non-toxic to cats and dogs. It's the genus's real advantage as a gift, because a lot of the indoor plants people reach for first are not: philodendron, peace lily, pothos and ZZ plants are all toxic if a pet chews on them. If the household has an animal that treats foliage as food, calathea is the safe end of the range.
Calathea leaves rise and fold closed at night, then lower and open through the day. The movement is called nyctinasty, and it's why the whole family picked up the names prayer plant and peacock plant. One piece of naming to get out of the way: botanists moved most calathea into the genus Goeppertia in 2012, so you'll see both names on labels and in care guides. They're the same plants.
Bright indirect light, and no direct sun, which bleaches the pattern out of the leaves. Keep the soil evenly moist rather than letting it dry between watering, and use rain water or filtered water where you can. They want humidity and a warm room, both of which a Brisbane summer hands them for free. Winter is the harder season indoors, when heating dries the air out.
Usually dry air, or the minerals in tap water. Calathea want humidity and they're sensitive to fluoride, so rain water or filtered water makes a visible difference. Grouping the plant with others, or standing it on a tray of pebbles and water, lifts the humidity around it.
It's a step up from a pothos or a ZZ plant, but it's not difficult. Give it bright indirect light, keep the soil evenly moist rather than letting it dry out, and keep it away from direct sun and cold draughts. Get those three right and it's straightforward.
Here's the short version of what the genus wants and where it comes from.
Choose a pot on the product page before you check out, along with any giftware or a greeting card. Our indoor plant pots range covers the sizes a calathea comes in, so the gift is finished the moment it lands. The card message is one you write yourself at checkout.
Order before 12pm on a weekday, or before 10am on Saturday, and your calathea goes out the same day. Our own couriers start their run in the early afternoon, and we aim to have homes delivered by 6pm and business addresses by 5pm, Monday to Saturday. Delivery is a flat $19.95 and there's no Sunday run. Check the address against the suburbs on our Brisbane delivery areas page before you order. We run the inner east through to the bayside and the Redlands, so a calathea can land in Carindale, Wynnum or Cleveland on the same day you order it.
Delivered by our own couriers
Flat $19.95 delivery
Gift wrapped as standard
Same day before 12pm
