All About Calathea Roseopicta – The Beneficial Ornamental Tropical Plant

Calathea Roseopicta is not a single plant but a specie of genus calathea and offers variety of plants known for their incredible leaves with beautiful patterns and double colored foliage.

It has so many known species but the best and most famous ones are Calathea roseopicta Dottie and calathea roseopicta Medallion.

FYI: As Roseopicta has several varieties, they may appear totally different from each other.

But how to know if you have roseopicta and which variety of the species you have, well, you will need to learn a little bit more about Calathea roseopicta, its appearance, foliage, patterns, and colors.

Here is the detailed guide on how to identify Calathea roseopicta and Calathea roseopicta care.

Calathea roseopicta:

Roseopicta also known as rose-painted calathea is a species from genus calathea, natively belongs to Brazil in northwest.

Calathea is loved by houseplant enthusiast as it produces perennial plant that grow in clumps for 50 cm, making it ideal plant to fill spaces.

Overview:

Identify Calathea roseopicta:

The appearance of calathea roseopicta can vary from one plant to another.

The common characteristics that you will see in all roseopicta varieties to identify are leaves and flowers.

1. Leaves:

Calathea roseopicta has big elliptic leaves that come with pinkish stripes right along the midrib that is pink when the plant is juvenile and becomes white when mature but look equally beautiful.

Also, when there is night, the leaves do a sagging bending that make a shape of praying hands. It is named as prayer-plant due to this. The size of the leaves grows up to 30 inches tall.

2. Flowers:

You will see tiny white- and purple-colored flowers on your Calathea roseopicta plant during summers. They are so small to get noticed but enticing to have.

Calathea roseopicta size:

Calathea roseopicta varieties are not taller tropical plants. The average height or size of a healthy roseopicta plant is 20 inches only.

However, it takes so much volume or you can space widely because of its big elliptic leaves.

The size and slow growth of roseopicta makes it an ideal houseplant because you will not have to repot it again and again and any small corner of the room can be glorified with this showy plant.

Moving on, a little bit of carelessness in the care and maintenance of your plant can lead the leaves to lose their beautiful shine and keep flowers from coming back every summer.

So, let’s do how you can take care of your Calathea roseopicta plant at home

Calathea roseopicta Care:

Most of the times, despite of taking care, Calathea roseopicta shows uneven growth pattens and disturbed progress. Well, it happens due to slight mistakes you commit during Calathea roseopicta care.

To avoid them all, follow this guide.

Before anything take care of these three things:

Calathea roseopicta are tropical plants hence,

• Warm temperature will make your rose-painted plant exclusively healthy while cold temperatures are a no.
• They need moistened habitat 24×7 and won’t like dry soil
• Indirect light makes plant leaves shiny and curled like praying hands
• As much humidity that much thriving plant
• Do not repot your plant within 2 to 3 years of growth

To maintain this here is what you need to do:

1. Placement:

Place your plant in a room that receives sunlight on the south or north facing window. they don’t need the harsh rays on them but they thrive so well in the presence of sunlight around.

In case, the sunlight stays on the leaves, the leaves will burn and show burnt spots.

2. Watering:

Prayer plant loves to remain soaked in the wet soil but they hate overwatered and drenched ground. So, what you need is to keep the plant from all sides wet yet dry from the bottom with moisture remaining in the soil.

When your plant is thirsty it will let you know, you will see instead of curling in payer hand, they will start bending backward. In this case, immediately water your plant.

3. Temperature:

Maintain a high temperature around your calathea roseopicta plant. However, this high temperature is the normal temperature of hot regions.

You only need to worry during colder season and when the temperature goes below 15 degree Celsius otherwise it’s all okay.

4. Humidity:

Humidity needs to be high and you can use all three methods to increase it such as keep it closer to other plants.

If you don’t have so much plants indoor, you can grow grass on a small area indoor using seed mats and place the pot of calathea roseopicta over it. Grass increases humidity.

On the other hand, humidifiers will also come in handy in this case.

Thirdly, put your plant in the humidity tray and mist it regular to avoid drenching and increase humidity.

5. Fertilizers:

All plants need fertilizers but only at a proper time and if you fertilize your plant at a wrong time, your plant can end up dead.

The best time to fertilize calathea roseopicta is summer and spring as it is growing season. Your plant is creating new leaves and petals and hence need more energy in terms of fertilizers.

Use organic, slow, and light fertilizes only.

6. Soil:

You will need to learn about soil only when repotting your plant. Along with being moisturized and cool the rose-painted plant soil should also be well-draining potting mix.

Use, peat-based potting mix that is 2 parts peat and 1 part perlite.

It will not let the water to stand in soil and disturb the roots of your plant. Draining soil easily and quickly removes the access water from the plant.

7. Repotting:

When you repot your plant, make sure to use terracotta plants only with a hole at the bottom.  As it helps in easy removal of access water.

Secondly, choose the pot according to prospect size of your plant for the next 2 to 3 years. Being slower growers, roseopicta doesn’t like to be report every six months.

However, as this slight growth will need room as well therefore estimate 3 years grown period plant when choosing pot size.

8. Pest Control and Diseases:

All house bugs are attracted to you plant such as mealybugs, scales, thrips, spider mites, and fungus gnats.

Also, if you overwater your plant it can come at a risk of many diseases such as root rot and leaves fungus etc.

To avoid this, keep your plant under high humidity as the house bugs hate it and avoid overwatering to not to cause root rot and fungal disease.

Propagating Calathea rosea:

You don’t find seeds of tropical plants usually when it comes to propagation, you will need the stem of already grown calathea.

The best time to propagate the calathea rosea is spring and summer because plant is yet growing and will easily multiply its numbers.

Experts recommend that instead of cutting one or two branches, cut you plant in two pieces when repotting, sow in two pots and hence by doing so you will be able to multiply its number.

Make sure to take good care of watering, sunlight, temperature, humidity, and all other factors for you newly propagated plant.

Examine it twice a day, give it time, praise it, talk to it, and you will see the plant thriving within some days.

Calathea roseopicta toxicity:

Don’t worry, calathea roseopicta dotty, calathea roseopicta medallion and all other calathea varieties are not toxic to pets or children.

You can freely and confidently have this plant in home with cats, dogs or kids.

Calathea roseopicta cultivars:

Being extremely beautiful, showy, and well-demanding variety of plants, experts have created Calathea roseopicta cultivar varieties using selective breeding methods.

Some of these famous Calathea roseopicta cultivars are:

• Calathea zebrina
• Calathea orbifolia
• Calathea rufibarba
• Calathea makoyana
• Calathea crocata
• Calathea lancifolia
• Calathea warscewiczii
• Calathea ornata

Watch this video to know more about Calathea Roseopicta cultivar identification:

Benefits of Keeping Calathea Roseopicta at home:

Many times, decorative plants do not come with a specific benefit. However, Calathea roseopicta is all about being helpful for you. How? here are some points:

1. Air Freshener:

Having large leaves, roseopicta varieties are able to produce more oxygen. So, if you have a small room that you share with others, this plant can keep the air fresh to breathe.

2. Natural Humidifier:

Once again, the larger leaves of the prayer-plant are able to humidify the surroundings. For this, you just need to mist the leaves with water and breath in fresh air.

3. Dust Proofing:

Roseopicta plants are able to catch the debris and dust on the latex leaves and hence keep the floor from dust and debris.

How to place Calathea roseopicta to show off?

• Place them indoor
• Place them in the verandas
• Place them in balconies
• Place them on your work desk to work better

Bottom Line:

This is all about calathea roseopicta. Which variety of roseopicta you have in your home? Let us know in the comment section below.