To get the most out of your peace lily flowers, you must encourage their beauty at every stage of their life.
Surprisingly, these lovely flowers aren’t lilies! The part of the peace lily that we call the flower is called a spadix.
It is made up of a long line of tiny blooms surrounded by a spathe, an elegantly changed leaf.
Peace lily blooms go through four distinct stages: budding, blooming, seed production, and death. Peace lily blooms in the spring. Watering, adequate light, regular fertilization, and a warm growing environment will help you get the most out of your blossoms.
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Peace Lily Flower Stages
Flower Buds
A new Peace Lily bloom is easy to overlook. Early buds look like fresh leaves, revealing a little something about their origins.
However, the spathe of a new flower is a modified leaf that evolved to protect the spadix, and so it often just looks like new foliage.
Flowering
When the bud matures, it will unfurl like a leaf. Then, the spadix shows itself, and the spathe opens up around it in a graceful way to frame the growing flower.
Each tiny bud will open as the flower matures, inviting pollinators.
Flowers’ structures are so small and densely packed into the spadix that they are difficult to discern with the naked eye.
Production of Seeds
If the Peace Lily is lucky, its tiny flowers will be pollinated, and the process will move on to the next step.
The flowers close up again and slowly turn into small structures that look like berries.
The spadix darkens, and the pebbly texture becomes more noticeable.
It’s common for the spathe to wilt at this point. As a result, the tip may turn yellow or brown or lose its crisp white color.
Many gardeners choose to cut off the tops of their Peace Lilies when the spathe starts to turn brown.
This allows the plant to re-direct energy that would otherwise be used to produce seeds to the leaves or the development of new flowers.
It also keeps the Lily from becoming overrun with half-dead blooms.
The Final Stage
If you let the dying flower stay where it is, it will continue to fall apart and spread its seeds.
Eventually, as the seeds mature and fall from the spadix, the spathe dies out.
It deteriorates like any other leaf, turning brown or black and shriveling. The spadix disintegrates.
In general, I’d recommend removing dead flowers before they reach the stage of seed dispersal.
It’s a messy part of the plant’s life cycle that doesn’t do much to make the parent plant stronger.
It can also attract pests, and the fewer crisp new blooms the plant produces, the longer the flowers remain on the plant.
Why Are My Peace Lily Flowers Green Instead of White?
Flowers are still developing
The green Peace Lily flower is still developing. The spathe is a modified leaf, and it takes some time to fully adapt to this unique new role.
Here is why your peace lily flower turn green and how to deal with them.
Too Much Light
Another thing that can make Peace Lily flowers turn green is too much light. The green pigment stays in the delicate white tissue to absorb too much ultraviolet light.
If you don’t stop it, this intense light will burn the tissue, making it brown and dry.
The extra green in flower acts as a sunscreen, soaking up the sun’s rays before they can do any harm.
Moving the Peace Lily to a place with less light will help reduce those damaging rays.
As a result, the green pigment will fade, and you will soon have beautiful white flowers.
Too Much Fertilizer
Peace Lilies are not heavy feeders. They only require a small amount of fertilizer in their growing medium regularly. If you use too much, you risk causing damage.
Extra nitrogen in the soil burns the roots, and when other minerals build up in the plant’s tissue, they cause chemical burns.
The Peace Lily uses as much of this surplus as possible to deal with it.
But, first, it presses the spathe back into service, transforming it from a pale decorative leaf to a functional green one.
You can avoid this by fertilizing your plants less often. Then, the Lily won’t have to find ways to use it up with less fertilizer around.
At the height of summer, it’s also a good idea to thoroughly flush the soil to remove any buildup of minerals and nitrogen in the medium.
5 Reasons Why Peace Lily Is Not Flowering
The plant is Too Young
After five years or so, a Peace Lily typically reaches full maturity, and before then, it will not produce any flowers.
Growers often use hormones made from chemicals to force young plants to bloom, so they look better and sell better.
The miniature Peace Lilies you see in garden stores with lots of fresh blooms aren’t old enough to have flowers, and you may have to wait a while for more once the ones you have to die off.
Aside from being aesthetically pleasing, the Peace Lily’s foliage helps improve the surrounding area’s air quality.
They’re one of the best plants for cleaning the air, and they can remove dangerous chemicals from the air at a fast rate.
If you give the Peace Lily enough time, it will bloom again, and you will be able to breathe fresh air while you wait.
Lack of Light
Good lighting is essential for the Peace Lily to produce its graceful blooms; otherwise, it will be deprived of the energy it needs.
Peace Lilies are ideal for home or office shadows. A small amount of light is all they require to keep their existing leaves healthy and vibrant.
But if you want to see growth, especially in flowers, you’ll need to increase the amount of light your Peace Lily receives.
All plants use photosynthesis to fuel their growth. This is how the green pigment in the leaf turns to water and oxygen into sugars by using sunlight.
The more light a plant gets, the more sugar it produces and the more energy it has to grow new leaves and flowers.
Improper Watering
Like many tropical plants, Peace Lilies require a constant supply of water without their growing medium becoming saturated or damp.
Too little, and the Peace Lily won’t have enough resources to make any flowers.
Root rot is a real possibility if you use too much water. Read how to save an overwatered peace lily.
Peace lilies also need water that is completely free of mineral salts or additives like chlorine or fluoride.
Because of the buildup of these chemicals in the soil, their sensitive white spathes are at risk of chemical burns.
If you use distilled water or filtered tap water, you can prevent this from happening to your plants.
Lack of Fertilization
A Peace Lily in a pot needs the minerals in the growing medium, and it’s easy for them to run out just by keeping leaves alive.
If you want to see a beautiful flower bloom, you’re going to need many nutrients and energy.
The Peace Lily needs a half dose of good liquid fertilizer (Amazon link) about once a month during spring and summer.
In the case of smaller plants, a quarter of the recommended dosage is sufficient.
This will give the soil just enough extra life without making it too strong or causing chemical burns.
Temperature Problem
Peace lilies prefer a warm environment. They’ve evolved to thrive in the sweltering jungles of Colombia, so they cannot succeed in colder climates.
Even if they’re able to keep themselves alive, they won’t be able to produce new leaves.
So, if you want to see beautiful blossoms, keep the house in a comfortable 70-75°F (21-24°C) temperature range.
Why Are My Peace Lily Flowers So Small
Tiny flowers are preferable to no flowers, but they still indicate something wrong with the Peace Lily.
As the plants mature, they will produce small flowers.
However, it takes some time for the plant to get its hang, so you may see a few tiny adorable attempts before they hit their stride.
They will also produce small flowers if the conditions are nearly but not quite perfect for blooms.
Check all your finer, more easily overlooked care requirements first, particularly temperature and fertility.
A lack of light and water is more likely to result in no flowers than a few small ones.
It’s also possible that you started with a variety that produces small flowers. The cultivar Spathiphyllum x ‘Wallisii’ is an example of a dwarf Peace Lily with tiny flowers.
How to Grow Peace Lily Flowers
- Ensure abundant bright but indirect light.
- Water only when the top two inches of growing medium are dry.
- Water with filtered, distilled, or rainwater.
- Fertilize regularly with a dilute liquid fertilizer during the growing season.
- Keep the Peace Lily warm, preferably between 70 – 75°F (21 – 24°C).
- Be patient and prepare to wait for the Peace Lily to mature.