When my father passed away, almost ten years ago, a business associate sent a very nice planter. It consisted of seven or eight small plants and a handsome square pot. I kept the plants alive for months, despite the lack of a drainage hole in the pot. They finally reached a point when it was time to disentangle the roots and separate them to their own pots. This Maranta leuconeura ‘Red’ was one of them.
We did very well for quite a while. He grew lush and full, and bloomed frequently. Then suddenly he started to decline. I may have messed up the watering, or perhaps it got too dry in the house. In my search for an answer I think I even read that Marantas just die back sometimes. For whatever reason it was not good, and all that remained was one sad stem which put out a lonely leaf. And then another. But it didn’t die, and remained a tiny two leaf stem for almost a year.
It somehow kept going, sad and lonely as it was. Then this summer that little stem started pushing out new leaves, grew longer, and got “viney”. Woo-hoo. And a few weeks later, on the other side of the pot, up popped a new stem. It too, is pushing out leaves. Since it’s been almost ten years since he arrived, I’m pretty stoked about the whole thing.
I’ll keep you posted.
