There are five main species of Calathea. Those are Calathea insignins, Calathea makoyana, Calathea zebrina, Calathea rosea and Calathea ornata. This plant grows as a bush. Stem is a rhizome.
Propagation can be done by cots come from rhizome. To get cots, remove Calathea plant from soil and remove it's cots very carefully without breaking roots. It is compulsory to have one or two leaves in a removed cot. These cots can be plant in media to get new Calathea plants. Plant beds are more suitable to plant new cots. Beds should be about 3 feet in width. Use 01 part of compost, 01 part of rough sand and spore fiber media like refuse of coir to make the filling media. To fill the media in to beds, first loose the soil of the plant beds and them mix above mixture well with it. Then make the beds flatten. Spray little bit of water on it. When planting keep about 10 inches distance between two adjacent plants. If you plant individually, not on beds dig 1x1x1 foot pits. After planting cover the soil media with decayed plant material to protect the temperature of the soil. Make a simple brick wall around the beds to avoid soil erosion.
Calathea does not love to high sunlight. Therefore arrange them a shade of 60%. Natural shade is good but if you use a shade net you can get the best results. Supply water to the plants daily. It helps to keep the root system in a good proper temperature. Otherwise leaves go discolored. When supplying water all the soil media and the plant must be wet.
It is good to use fertilizer with high Nitrogen percentage. Burn like patches can be formed on leaves due to insects, fungi or high sunlight. Use a good insecticide and fungicide to avoid such diseases.