I got a white bird of paradise on 4/17 from a HomeDepot. I took it home and left it outside for a bit thinking I could get away with it for a few days (I am moving in and didn't have space) the leafs started curling and showing color signs of sunburn. A few leafs also split in the middle near the tip. I moved it in.

Since then I will admit I have not been the perfect caretaker. I water somewhat infrequently, mist frequently, and its access to indirect light has probably been all over the place and especially lower recently as I have had my blinds down for the heatwave. I put in a few plant food sticks. I think the soil has at least been a bit moist at all times.

Here is sort of its progression:

https://preview.redd.it/57wwaxyuo5cd1.png?width=1402&format=png&auto=webp&s=55792e6466006eeb25b69640d14cf06d7164df76

About 7/3 I noticed some of the leafs were starting to brown and shrivel up. I figured I had done something wrong at first but talking to friends apparently plants just decide to kill leafs from time to time. I heard that swaddling the shoot with a damp paper towel can help it unfurl without splitting so I swaddled it for about 5 days after 7/3. It still had not completely unfurled so I removed the paper towels.

Today I found the shoot on the floor with some like white hairs coming out of it. And now I am worried. About half the leafs and some of the stems are showing brown colors and this leaf "failed". There is another shoot that popped up sometime between 6/25 and now and I am hoping its the plants lifeline.

I am not familiar enough with plants but what do you call this when the new leaf just kind of falls off before unfurling? Would you be worried at this point? Is there anything I can try to do to turn this ship around? Is it possible its unhappy about light?

Another thought is things have been so chaotic it's possible something knocked the shoot. I dont know if they are super delicate or something but it does appear like the plant like pinched it off in a way.

In this image I have a red arrow pointing where the shoot came out (the one off the picture is just to show its roughly the same stem) and the transparent green is the new shoot. Apologies for the background mess I am still very much moving in.

https://preview.redd.it/fc206gikp5cd1.png?width=1054&format=png&auto=webp&s=1fbcda3f2cca8287e3907a669ca9def58d41b6a3

Any thoughts and suggestions really appreciated.