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Help Your Shy Peace Lily Finally Bloom with These Simple Tips

Help Your Shy Peace Lily Finally Bloom with These Simple Tips

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The peace lily is a gorgeous plant that is famously known for its sword-like flowers and its lush green foliage. Some people also believe that the peace lily is supposed to bring you good luck, and that is one of the reasons why the peace lily is so popular all over the globe.

It is perhaps widely known as an indoor houseplant because of its ability to thrive in relatively little light, and due to the fact that the plant does not require a lot of effort to maintain. If you have a peace lily in your house, you don’t have much to worry about for its care and upkeep.

The peace lily might not be a very demanding plant, but you have to understand that if you want the plant to bloom, it will require a bit of attention. Most peace lilies are generally found in parts of Central America, Venezuela, and Colombia.

They are usually found in dense tropical rainforests, and they mostly receive dappled sunlight due to the fact that they are almost always surrounded by taller plants.

If you want the plant to bloom, you have to make sure that you replicate the same surroundings that are found in the tropical rainforests from where the plant originates.

While it may sound a tad bit complicated when you think about it, it’s really not that difficult. First of all, you need to understand exactly what your plant needs to survive.

The forest generally provides shaded conditions and dappled sunlight to the plant, so your first step will be to work toward the lighting. Before you get started, however, it’s important to understand the peace lily’s bloom cycle.

The peace lily is only going to bloom three or four times in a year, and each time, you will have several flowers (not more than three or four). So, it’s important to understand that the peace lily is not a frequent bloomer.

You have to lower your expectations for the peace lily, because it’s not going to bloom as frequently as you might expect. There are several reasons why the peace lily might not bloom, so it’s important to rectify the problems.

Why the Peace Lily Isn’t Blooming

Perhaps the most common reason why your peace lily might not be blooming is the lack of light. Most people think that because the plant is able to survive in low light, it doesn’t need light at all.

However, you should understand that the plant actually needs around six hours of indirect sunlight during the day to bloom. If the plant doesn’t get much light, it will simply not bloom.

When most plants receive relatively little light, they enter a state known as “survival” mode. During this state, they don’t bloom; they only try to conserve their energy for survival.

As a result of that, the plant does not bloom. Furthermore, if you do not give your peace lily an appropriate amount of fertilizer, it might not bloom either.

The plant does not need a lot of water, and it’s incredibly resilient, so survival isn’t a problem. Now that you know the basic reasons for the plant not blooming, it’s time to talk about the different steps that you need to take to encourage blooming.

Lighting

The lighting requirements for the peace lily are relatively straightforward, but if you fail to meet the requirements, the plant will simply not flower. The flowers of the peace lily are often the main reason why the plant is cultivated on such a broad level.

Whenever you want to encourage flowering for any plant, not just the peace lily, the first thing that you need to focus on is the lighting. This is also perhaps the easiest problem to fix on your own.

In low light conditions, the peace lily just won’t have enough light to encourage flowering. Remember, your peace lily requires an abundance of bright, indirect lighting to bloom properly.

So, the best thing to do would be to place your peace lily near a window, but not directly in it. This could cause the plant to wither and die as it does not do well with lots of sunlight.

Emulating the Natural Conditions

Under the plant’s natural conditions, it is able to initiate flower growth during the relatively shorter days of winter. As the days begin to extend during the springtime, flowering becomes sporadic at best.

But, considering the amount of commercial interest that this plant has generated, many professional gardeners add gibberellic acid, an external hormone, to promote growth of the flowers.

First of all, you have to find the right spot for your plant in your house. Once you have done that, the next step is to make sure that you change the potting soil.

If you are already using the medium potting soil that is not too compact, there’s no reason for you to change the potting soil either. The only thing you need to do is find an ideal position for the plant, and the plant will automatically start producing flowers.

Feeding

Another thing that will encourage flowering for the plant is regular feeding. Peace lilies need to be fed on a regular basis, and it’s important that you choose a properly balanced houseplant fertilizer.

This is fairly obvious: if a plant does not receive a sufficient amount of nutrients, it’s simply not going to flower. If you hardly fertilize your peace lily, there is a pretty strong chance that your plant won’t flower. Even when it does, the blooms will be short and relatively little.

Ideally, you should go for a fertilizer that has a nutrient value of around 20-20-20. This is not only going to encourage the healthy growth of the plant, but it’s also going to encourage faster blooms.

A common mistake that many people make when selecting a fertilizer is that they choose one that is very high on nitrogen. This will increase leaf growth, but the plant won’t have as many flowers.

Ideally, you should feed the plant at least two or three times during the summer months. As the temperature begins to dip, you should extend this to a period of six to eight months.

Even a little bit of fertilizer is going to make a big difference, but don’t go overboard with the use of fertilizer. Excess fertilizer can cause damage to the roots, and the plant will eventually fall sick and die.

Watering

Another very important thing that is going to have a major impact on the growth of flowers is the amount of water that you give to the peace lily. As a plant that grows in the tropical regions, the peace lily likes quite a bit of humidity.

However, you should know that the plant actually hates wet soil all the time. Therefore, if you are going to keep it in an indoor pot, you have to make sure that there is a sizeable drain hole underneath that allows all the excess water to escape through.

These are just a few things that you need to care for the plant and make it bloom on a regular basis.

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Angel Johnston

Wednesday 3rd of March 2021

Thank you so much for your comments. I found them to be extremely helpful and easy to understand. I will be visiting your site often. I grow 65 indoor plants in my apartment with low light, using artificial and as much natural light as I have. I did copy the list you provided regarding plants that did well in artificial lighting but I have some plants that were not listed, ie, Berkin - Maranta and Song of India, to mention a few. Is there a place where I can list my own plants and get the information I need from you? Hope I can. Please keep in mind that I am a senior with little to no technical ability. Thank you so much