With its rich green foliage and lovely white bloom, the peace lily is a beautiful enhancement to any home. Like any house plant, you want to maintain your peace lily for a long time. So, how long can a peace lily live?
Peace lilies, a Spathiphyllum species, have an average lifespan of three to five years. Some gardeners can see their lilies grow even up to 20 years!
In this article, we’ll show you the best growing conditions for your peace lily and tips on how to prolong its life. Let’s dive right into it!
1. Proper Potting and Repotting
Potting your peace lilies indoors is like setting the stage for them. They’ll need wide spaces and similar soil conditions to their tropical origins.
Proper Potting
Your indoor peace lilies need plenty of room to grow in. As pot-bound plants, a pot one size larger than the plant will allow them to grow better.
Repotting
When peace lilies increase in size and don’t have enough room to grow, repotting them is necessary.
You’ll know if your peace lily needs repotting once its roots sprout through the drainage holes. Often, the roots overcrowd and surface on top of the soil, which is a sign you should repot them.
When to Repot
Because spring is the season of growth, this is the ideal time to repot your peace lilies. Once every year in springtime will do.
2. Provide a Warm and Humid Environment
Peace lilies grow in tropical forest floors where it’s always humid and warm. Growing beneath the shades of gigantic trees, they mostly get indirect sunlight.
Replicating Warm and Humid Environment Indoors
A good imitation of this environment indoors will support the growth of your peace lily. So, place them near east-facing windows where they can get bright indirect sunlight.
Peace lilies may also tolerate low-light rooms, but they grow significantly better where there’s better lighting.
Mimicking Tropical Forest Temperature Indoors
A temperature of around 65 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit is suitable for your peace lily. Thus, you shouldn’t prolong the plant’s exposure to temperatures lower and higher than that.
Direct heat and cold will damage your peace lily, so they shouldn’t be placed near AC or heating ventilation systems. Moreover, you can’t expose peace lilies to direct sunlight, which will brown their leaves.
During summers, peace lily foliage needs to be moist. Hence, misting their leaves regularly during this season will help retain their humidity levels.
Additionally, it’s best to keep these plants away from windows during winter. These lilies are intolerant to cold temperatures, so cold drafts from openings will damage them.
Furthermore, peace lilies can thrive in humid outdoors, provided they’re grown in states with a hardiness zone of 10-12.
3. Moderate Watering
Peace lilies love water. In fact, some varieties of peace lilies grow by the swamps.
Since peace lilies are native to tropical rainforests, they also receive plenty of rainwater.
Watering Indoor Peace Lilies
When peace lilies grow in pots, they only need moderate watering. In this case, the soil should be moist and not soggy.
Overwatering and improper drainage can clog up the soil and cause root rot. On the other hand, underwatering and drying the soil will cause the plant to wilt.
Planting Peace Lilies in Water
In other instances, many plant owners grow their peace lilies in water alone. Usually, in vases, they fill the water up until it covers the roots.
For this, distilled water or rainwater is suitable for them. To stay on top of their growth, peace lilies in vases also need a weekly water change.
What Kind of Water to Use for Watering
When watering your peace lilies, use distilled water or rainwater. Using tap water is unsuitable for them because of the chlorine content.
Furthermore, peace lilies can survive well in a sub-irrigation system.
4. Organic Soil
As mentioned, peace lilies grow on tropical forest floors, which are consistently moist. Despite the diverse flora of rainforests, these forests have relatively nutrient-poor soil.
The rainforest plants, however, absorb nutrients from decaying organic matter in the ground.
Hence, a well-draining yet moisture-retaining potting mix is perfect for them. Plus, terracotta pots absorb excess moisture, making them ideal for potting your peace lily.
5. Sufficient Fertilizing
Peace lilies don’t require too much soil fertilizer. Feeding them once or twice every year is enough to keep them healthy.
Using organic slow-release fertilizing will improve their roots and foliage. However, gardeners spray liquid fertilizers when they want their lilies to flower more often in a year.
6. Root Division Propagation
Multiplying the growth of your peace lilies has never been simpler. With the root division method, it’s pretty easy to propagate these plants, especially as you repot them.
When to Propagate
You’ll see some tiny offshoots sprouting under your full-grown leaves. That’s the best time to take them out and repot them, so they can fully mature on their own too.
Additionally, removing dead leaves and flowers will promote better growth for the peace lilies.
How to Propagate
These plants have intertwining rhizomatous roots, which may intimidate you in your first propagation. It’s not something to worry about though, as you can go ahead and easily pull each plant apart.
Pulling the lilies out takes a gentle force because the soil is stuck between the roots. If you take out enough roots, they’ll grow just fine in their new pots.
7. Blooming Peace Lily Flowers
We often mistake the white part as the flower. The white ‘flowers’ are actually leaves called spathes.
The spiky bloom, the actual flower, is what the spathe protects. Typically, these flowers bloom twice a year, but not always in great volume.
Growing Conditions for Blooming
Without proper sunlight and watering, the peace lily flowers won’t grow. Thus, moving them to a brighter and warmer location is important.
Fertilizer for Blooming
Some lily flowers bloom white from the beginning, but some start green. If the flowers bloom in green, the cause is usually soil overfertilization.
Instead, spraying flowering fertilizers will increase their white blooms all year round.
However, use these types of fertilizers with discretion too. You still might end up over-fertilizing your peace lilies with it.
Cutting
If your flowers have grown for a while now, they’ll also start to decay over time. When this happens, cut off the dead flowers to make way for new ones.
8. Other Peace Lily Care Tips
Taking care of peace lilies is quite manageable. As these lilies are native to tropical rainforests, they should also grow in similar conditions to thrive.
Not only are peace lilies aesthetically pleasing, but they’re also fantastic air purifiers. That’s why it’s a must-have plant for any home!
In optimal conditions, peace lilies grow about one to four feet in height and width. It’s equally important to care for the peace lily leaves as well.
Generally, plant leaves collect dust as time passes. Simply wipe each lily leaf with a damp cloth to remove the dust.
Furthermore, every part of the peace lily is poisonous when ingested, so keep your kids and pets away from these plants.
Wrap Up: How Long Can a Peace Lily Live?
Now, we know how long a peace lily can live given good growing conditions.
Peace lilies thrive best indoors with proper potting and organic soil. Coupled with moderate watering and indirect sunlight, your peace lilies are set to live long.
Additionally, giving peace lilies sufficient fertilizer and root division propagation will help them grow faster.
When growing peace lilies, you expect them to bloom as you care for them. Proper growing conditions and flowering fertilizers will allow them to bloom beautifully throughout the year.
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