Do you ever look at a plant and feel simultaneously awestruck by its beauty and terrified by its care requirements? For years, I held off buying a stromanthe sanguinea triostar simply because it looked so fragile. Prayer plants are definitely not my forte (with the exception of my lovely maranta), and stromanthe are more or less prayer plants, which shrivel up almost immediately in direct sunlight and dry air. But just look at beautiful variegation on those lush oblong leaves — how could I resist that sumptuous juxtaposition of cream, emerald, and strawberry pink? So yes, I finally snatched one up from my local nursery a few weeks ago. So, now how does one actually go about caring for a stromanthe triostar? Here’s what I’ve been doing.
Even if I do see the slightest sign of a crispy tip, my stromanthe triostar plant has been happily unfurling leaves since it arrived at chez moi. It’s been happy sitting by my northeast-facing window and receiving medium indirect light in moderate room temperature throughout the day. I keep it in its nursery pot in a terracotta pot and make sure to keep its soil moist, never allowing it to dry out completely. Since I haven’t invested in a humidifier, I do spray my stromanthe triostar with a mister a few times throughout the week to make sure that it gets adequate humidity. In any case, it receives filtered water or tap water that I leave out for a few days.
As for future plans with this prized pink plant, I plan to move it to a pebble tray on top of water to give it adequate humidity. I’m also eager to give it diluted liquid fertilizer in a month or two when the weather gets warmer. Right now, I’m quite frankly not even watering it that often, only quenching its thirst every two weeks or so. So, for now, let’s keep our fingers crossed that it doesn’t get Thanos-snapped into a pile of crispy bits!
