How to Get A Peace Lily to Bloom Again
Peace lilies look absolutely stunning in the shops when they’re in full bloom with those big beautiful white flowers and dark green foliage, and this is why they’re such a popular houseplant with so many people. But many of us don’t know how to get a peace lily to bloom again.
Basically the problem most people find though is that when they bring the plant home, the flowers die back and they very often don’t return, leading people to throw the plant out. Many people wonder, “why is my peace lily not blooming?” and are concerned about “how long do peace lily flowers last” and “when do peace lilies bloom.” I’m on a mission to stop this from happening and to save this plant from extinction in your home.
Let me share with you why the flowers often don’t return and how to get a peace lily to bloom again. Understanding why lilies are not blooming can help you enjoy this beautiful plant for years to come.
Table of Contents
Industry Secrets
So let me start with some disappointing news and an industry secret. The peace lily you buy in the shop with all those beautiful white flowers will be the best that your plant ever looks.
This doesn’t mean we can’t get it to bloom again and for it to still look gorgeous. The secret that the growers don’t want us to know is that the peace lilies we find in the shops are fed something called gibberellic acid (and I think I’m saying that correctly), which is a natural plant hormone that forces the plant to bloom. This is why the flowers are so abundant in the shops.
The growers stimulate flower blooms so they’re more attractive to buyers and they increase their sales. Do you think this sounds like a con? The gibberellic acid wears off when we bring it home, and the flowers die off, and people really struggle to get them to bloom again.
This is partly because it takes a while for the plant to bloom again after they’ve been treated with gibberellic acid and partly because they do need specific conditions for them to do so. I think this is why I really like this plant. Whenever I get it to flower again, it feels like a fantastic achievement and I’m really happy with myself. Understanding how to get a peace lily to bloom can be rewarding and fulfilling.
Even if you get the conditions that I’m going to explain in this article exactly right, you’re never going to get it to bloom more than a handful of flowers at a time unless you’re somehow using some dark arts where you have access to gibberellic acid. My plant periodically sends out a couple of flowers at a time, and this is sufficient for me. I still think it looks gorgeous.
Ensuring Blooms with Proper Light
Light Requirements and Positioning
A healthy peace lily will normally flower twice a year, once in the spring and again in autumn. So don’t get frustrated when your plant is not flowering in the middle of summer or winter.
Now, peace lilies can tolerate darker conditions, and they will happily sit there as a green plant in your home. To get the most out of them, though, try and place them as near to a window as possible so that they get at least six hours of bright indirect light. If you live in the northern hemisphere, I find that placing this plant next to an east-facing window where it even gets three to four hours of direct morning sun is the best place for it.
Maximizing Light for Photosynthesis
This maximizes the amount of light the plant receives so they can effectively photosynthesize and store energy to send out flowers. Without enough light to photosynthesize, the plant won’t be able to store enough energy for blooming. I would avoid giving this plant afternoon sun because this is too strong for the plant and will likely scorch the leaves and it will start to fade and turn brown.
Using Grow Lights
I do keep my plant about two meters away from my east-facing window because space is at a premium next to the window and it does still flower from time to time. If you’re concerned that your room does not have enough natural light, such as if your room faces the north in the northern hemisphere, and you want your plant to bloom, a great option is to invest in some grow lights. Grow lights are fantastic at replicating sunlight and we can control the amount of light we give our plants.
I keep my grow lights on for 10 hours each day and I see fantastic growth in my plants. I could up this to 12 or 14 hours if I wanted to see even better results.
Ensuring Blooms with Proper Watering
If you’ve got a peace lily at home, you might have noticed that it’s quite a thirsty plant. My general advice for houseplants is to water about once a week during the spring and summer but always to check the soil first, and I find I need to water my peace lily a little more often. Watering your peace lily correctly will impact whether you’ll be able to get it to flower again.
So, proper watering techniques are crucial in learning how to get a peace lily to bloom. An over-watered or under-watered peace lily will be a stressed plant, and a stressed plant won’t be able to store sufficient energy to bloom. Over-watering means that the soil is constantly saturated because you are watering too often, which leads to rotting of the roots. If a plant’s roots are rotting and dying, then the foliage will be negatively impacted, which affects photosynthesis and thus flowering capacity.
Under-watering your plant will also lead to root problems and the plant’s foliage will droop and turn yellow. This stress will not allow the plant to grow healthy leaves that are needed for photosynthesis. As ever, my advice is to check the soil before watering, either by sticking your finger a couple of inches into the soil or using a good old moisture meter.
If the soil is wet, then leave it a few days and check again. You want the soil to feel moist but not wet and not bone dry.
Does it need fertilizing?
Peace lilies are hungry plants. Much like my two kids are hungry for snacks all day every day, peace lilies need to be fed a little more often than your other houseplants during the growing season.
I feed my peace lily with a liquid fertilizer at least once a month during the growing season and this helps keep the foliage green and gives it nutrients it needs to flower. The flowering plants need potassium, which is one of the three macronutrients in fertilizer, so you can use a fertilizer that is rich in potassium during spring and autumn to give them the best chance of blooming.
Roots
If you have your plant in a bright spot and are watering and fertilizing correctly and it’s still not blooming, then it’s time to check the roots. If you’ve not repotted your peace lily in a few years, then chances are it is root bound. Take your plant out of the pot.
If the root ball is mostly roots with little soil, then it’s time to up-pot your plant into some fresh soil. This is important because plants need soil in the pot to hold on to moisture and nutrients to feed the roots over time and make for a healthy plant. If there’s no soil in the pot, then the plant can’t absorb the water and potassium needed to flower, and your plant will remain a plant with just green leaves.
If your plant is already large and you don’t want to upsize the pot, then another great option is to root prune it and it will respond well to this. Cut the bottom third and around the sides of the root ball and re-pot into the same pot using some fresh potting soil, and the roots will have room to grow again. This is great because it removes damaged or rotten roots that the plant then replaces with new healthy roots.
Key Points:
- If your plant isn’t blooming despite proper care, check the roots.
- Repot if root-bound; use fresh soil to ensure it absorbs water and nutrients.
- If the plant is large, consider root pruning and repotting with fresh soil.
Temperature
Peace lilies are native to the forest floors of tropical Central America and Southeast Asia, where they get consistent temperature and light year-round. This consistency in temperature is important if you want your plant to bloom like it does in the wild. Try not to allow the temperature in your house to drop below 15 degrees Celsius (60 degrees Fahrenheit) in the spring and autumn and below 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) in the winter because this will stress the plant and you might not get the blooms that season.
If I’m going away for Christmas for a long time, then I set the temperature in my house to not drop below 10 degrees Celsius because I don’t want to come back to a plant graveyard, so I recommend you do something similar. Keep your plants away from heaters and air conditioners as well as drafts and windows and doors. The rapid changes in temperature will do no good for the plant and can impact blooming.
Purifying the air
You’ll probably notice in the garden center that this plant is credited with the ability to purify the air in your home. It seems to be a particular marketing gimmick that sellers attach to this plant, maybe because of the apparent purifying flowers it has when in the shops. This, however, is a myth that started with a NASA published study in 1989 that has been jumped on by plant sellers the world over to give them a point of difference to sell more plants.
Don’t believe the hype and ignore sales pitches claiming this. It’s simply not true.
 *(Include an image of droopy leaves)* Some plants, such as calatheas, prefer moist soil at all times; otherwise, they develop that signature brown tissue damage on the leaves. The annoying thing here is that the damage cannot be reversed and can only be cut away, leaving you with a damaged plant. If the soil of your plant is bone dry, you'll notice that it's pulling away from the sides of the pot. This is because the soil has shrunk due to a lack of moisture, so make sure you are not letting this happen by watering a little more frequently. #### Signs Your Plant is Overwatered (darkgreen) Overwatering plants is a really common way that people kill their plants. Beginner plant enthusiasts often have a common misconception that houseplants need lots of water, but the reality is that these plants are native to hot climates where they may get periods of drought followed by large rain which rehydrates them. **Yellowing leaves** (red) can indicate an overwatering problem as well as an underwatering problem. If you are watering your plant too often and the soil is always wet, this can lead to root rot, which will begin to affect the leaves of your plant. **Limp and mushy leaves** (red) also indicate that you are overwatering your plant. This is particularly true with succulents such as Echeverias. Echeverias store water in their thick leaves and have difficulty storing excess water if you are watering your plant too often. This leads to mushy plants that eventually fall off.  *(Include an image of yellowing leaves)* Philodendron and Pothos plants tend to get mushy leaves that fall off if the soil is consistently soggy. My Philodendron Birkin recently developed some new brown leaves that fell off because I was overwatering it. Whereas crispy brown edges on leaves indicate an underwatering problem, if the whole leaves are turning brown, this tends to mean that the plant tissue is rotting due to too much water. You may also notice some water droplets on the ends of the leaves of some of your plants. This is the plant perspiring excess water through its leaves and can indicate that you are giving the plant too much water. Now, this tends to happen on plants that prefer drier soil, and I notice it quite often on my Philodendron Birkin and my Tradescantia Nanook. **Increased presence of fungus gnats** (red) can also be a sign that your plant is too moist. Fungus gnats like a moist top two inches of soil to breed and lay their eggs, so if your soil is wet, it creates a breeding ground for gnats. If you see lots of flea-like flies jumping around the top of your soil, I would just dial back on the watering and let the top two inches of the soil dry out before watering again. #### Watering Tips (darkgreen) It is important to allow the soil of your houseplant to dry out between waterings. This prevents the possibility of over-watering, which is one of the most common reasons people kill their plants. **Check the soil moisture** (red) before watering your plant by sticking your finger two inches into the soil. If it feels wet, leave it a few days and then check again. An even better way to check the soil moisture is to invest in a moisture meter. This device needs no batteries and tells you exactly how much moisture is in the soil, giving you control over watering your plants.  *(Include an image of a moisture meter)* When you identify that your plant needs water, make sure you give it a thorough soaking. Take your plant to a sink area and soak the soil four or five times until water drains out of the bottom each time. This ensures that all the soil in the pot gets moistened and there are no dry patches. **Bottom watering** (teal) is a method that has changed the health of my plants since I implemented it a couple of years ago. Place your plant in a container of water and let it absorb moisture from the bottom up. This method prevents water from getting on the leaves, which can cause leaf tissue damage. I hope this article was helpful. Now you know when to water your plants and when not to. Apply this knowledge to your plants and see the growth. Happy gardening! --- Incorporating these visual and formatting enhancements will make your article more attractive and engaging for your readers.](https://growinggaze.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/pexels-artempodrez-7242495-scaled.jpg)
