My Prayer plant

Thank you to all who left me messages yesterday. I hope to reply to you all in due course. Today I have been busy preparing for tonight's council finance committee meeting, and Im not ready yet.

Whilst having a cup of tea I saw the houseplants on the patio , where I'd put them earlier to have one of their occasional washes in the drizzly rain that has been hanging about most of the day. I like to let the dust get washed off their leavers and for them to have a drink of good water.

This plant is, I think, a Calathea Zebrina, and is often called a Prayer plant because of its habit of raising these long leaves vertically at night, from the end of the nearly two foot long stems. The undersides are purple and I love the rich colour. I bought my first one when I bought my first flat nearly twenty-five years ago. I have constantly taken underground shoots to propagate the plant and given many away to friends.

This one hasn't been treated too well of late so needs a bit of love, and food. You can probably see some little holes on the purple underside of the leaf, where little sap sucking insects have had a feed. I will probably wash the leaves manually with a sponge to make sure they are all removed and to freshen them up for summer. I never put them in direct sunlight, as the leaves scorch very easily and curl up in disgust. If it is happy it starts to flower, but I never usually know when or why.