I bought a stunning Persian Shield recently. It is in indirect sunlight, but cannot understand why the leaves are turning brown. Any advice how to stop/prevent that would be a blessing! It seems to be quite a delicate plant. But the beautiful purple color is what I love about it.

Persian Shield requires warmth and very high humidity to grow well. Is this an indoor or outdoor plant?

Persian Shield (Strobilanthes auriculatus var. dyeriana) does like high humidity, which we have a lot of here in Florida but I've never had much luck growing them. The leaves on my plants always seemed to get raggedy looking after a very short time so I'd end up throwing them out.

One time when I was cleaning our back porch, I took a raggedy looking Persian Shield and sat it under some shrubs in full shade at the corner of the deck and promptly forgot about it. A few months later I was weeding that area and noticed the Persian Shield looked gorgeous! It was in an area of full shade that got regular watering twice a week from our irrigation system. Even though we didn't have frost, a chilly winter with a few nights dropping to the low to mid 30's ended up totally killing it.

I notice that our database shows zone 8 for Strobilanthes but I don't think they will survive frosts and freezes.

Too dry inside the house, I would leave it outside, and as mentioned, under some shade. Keep it well watered but not overly wet. Hopefully being near the ocean you should have a bit more humidity.

A million thanks, Suzanne. Will put it outside completely in shade & keep an eye on it for the next few days & let you know how it is doing. Do I take it in at night or leave it out there?

Leave it outside, you don't get that cold at night.

Isn't that the truth! I put it outside in the most shaded area then made a makeshift shield around just to be sure the sun didn't get to it. Everyone here is so kind & helpful , it really is incredibly amazing

it's a wonderful site!

Suzanne, I know it's only been 1 day since following your advice regarding leaving the plant outside, however, I just checked on it & the leaves seem to be slightly perkier- will continue to monitor it & let you know how it is doing.