The first thing that may have enticed you to get a peace lily in the first place is its snowy white, elegant flowers. That’s why you might be feeling disappointed now that you see your peace lily flowers turn green.
The most common reason why your blooms turn green is that they’re naturally aging. It may also be because you’re fertilizing your plant incorrectly. Other reasons could include wrong light conditions and acclimation struggles your peace lily might be going through.
In this article, we’ll find out more about why peace lily flowers turn green and what you can do to prevent it from happening.
Let’s jump right into it!
Why Are Your Peace Lily Flowers Turning Green?
It’s a shame to miss out on the signature feature a peace lily offers. So, you have to figure out what’s causing its flowers to turn green to correct the situation.
Here are some of the reasons why you’ve got green peace lily flowers and some tips you can use to solve each one:
1. Your Peace Lily Blooms Are Aging
Your peace lily flowers are turning green because they’re aging.
A peace lily’s blooms are actually made up of two parts—the spathe and the spadix. The spathe is that white sheath that looks like a petal, while the spadix is that protruding stalk that carries the actual peace lily flowers.
Essentially, the natural life cycle of a spathe or a sheathing bract is that it initially grows green. After a certain amount of time, it gradually turns white.
In the next phase, it goes back to being green and then finally, fades into a yellow or brown color.
The spathe is actually a modified leaf that’s similar to a peace lily’s true leaves. Just like foliage, the bract is also able to generate chlorophyll molecules to help the plant absorb sunlight and convert it to energy.
As it blooms, the spathe turns white to draw in pollinators for reproduction. Once it has served that purpose, the sheathing bract shifts back to its default function—to execute photosynthesis.
As a result, your peace lily’s flowers create more chlorophyll as the plant ages to help provide enough energy to it. The more chlorophyll molecules there are, the greener the flowers become.
As this is a natural course peace lily leaves go through, you can’t do anything to prevent it from happening. If you don’t like seeing green flowers on your plant, all you can do is prune them.
In addition, if you buy peace lilies with bracts that are just emerging, you’ll be able to appreciate white blooms much longer.
2. You’re Giving Your Peace Lily Too Much Fertilizer
Too much fertilizer can also contribute to the green color of your peace lily flowers.
This is because most fertilizers contain high contents of nitrogen. This nutrient is a huge part of the chlorophyll molecule as it supports and strengthens the pigment.
Consequently, the presence of nitrogen can increase the amount of chlorophyll content in leaves. This, in turn, results in much greener foliage.
Completely getting rid of fertilizer in your plant care isn’t an option if you’d like healthy, blooming peace lily flowers. So, all you can do is adjust how you fertilize your plant.
We’ve compiled some of the methods you can use to manage overfertilization issues. These may not fix the affected flowers, but they’ll help prevent the same issue from recurring on the new ones.
1. Limit the Number of Times You Fertilize
Since peace lilies don’t require frequent feeding; you only need to fertilize your plant occasionally. Two to three feedings are going to suffice during the growing seasons (spring and summer).
On the other hand, we recommend you fertilize your peace lily every six weeks during fall and winter.
2. Switch Fertilizers
Another way you can prevent your peace lily flowers from turning green is to ditch your old fertilizer. Remember, it’s the nitrogen that has caused this problem in the first place.
So, opt for a houseplant fertilizer with lower nitrogen content. Invest in a potassium fertilizer instead.
Not only will you avoid green flowers with this type of fertilizer, but you’ll also be building up your peace lily’s resistance to disease.
3. Flush and Repot
Lastly, you can try flushing your peace lily’s soil of any excess fertilizer.
You can do this by soaking your plant with water until it runs out of the drainage holes. Let your plant drip for about 30 minutes before starting the process again.
Repeat the cycle at least three times to ensure you’ve gotten rid of most of the fertilizer.
You may also try repotting your peace lily. Make sure to remove the old soil from its roots as much as you can before you place it in a new soil mix.
3. Your Peace Lily Is Receiving Lots of Sunlight
Exposure to too much sunlight may also cause your peace lily flowers to turn green.
As we’ve previously mentioned, your plant’s spathes contain molecules called chlorophyll. By absorbing excessive sunlight, this pigment will turn your peace lily flowers green.
To remedy this problem, you’ll have to move your plant to a spot with filtered light. In fact, this is the ideal light condition for peace lilies as they did originate from the tropical rainforests of Colombia and Venezuela.
To mimic their native home, place your plant in a room where it gets indirect light. You can use thin, sheer curtains to create a dappled light effect slightly similar to the rainforests.
The better placement would be somewhere near an east-facing window. The morning sunlight provides just the right amount of light exposure for your plant.
4. Your Peace Lily Is Having Trouble Acclimating
Just like us humans, your peace lily can also struggle to adapt to abrupt environmental changes. White peace lily flowers turning green can be an indication of that.
To help your plant flourish in your home, you’re going to have to make the necessary modifications to discourage your blooms from developing into green flowers.
1. Temperature
Because they’re tropical plants, peace lilies respond well to warm temperatures ranging from 65–85°F (18–30°C). It will help if you get an indoor thermometer so that you can monitor your home temperature.
Also, make sure not to place your peace lily in the direction of your vents or AC because cold drafts can easily dry up and kill your plant.
2. Humidity
Peace lilies grow well in high humidity levels as they’re native to tropical forests. So, you’ll need to increase the humidity of your home to at least 50%.
The best conditions would be higher than 50%, so bump up the humidity levels in the air through these methods:
1. Mist Your Peace Lily
To increase the humidity of your peace lily, you have to simply mist it. The moisture on your peace lily’s surfaces will gradually evaporate and add water vapor to the air.
Make sure to spray the flowers and leaves of your peace lily along with the air surrounding it.
Although this is the simplest method you can follow, unfortunately, it’s also the most impractical.
Because misting can only raise the humidity levels for a few hours, you’re going to have to spray your peace lily multiple times a day. This could be hard to work around if you need to leave the house for work.
2. Use a Humidifier
If you’re always out and about for the majority of the day, then you can get a humidifier to help you out.
There are some electric humidifiers you can fine-tune according to your convenience.
You can set them to maintain a certain humidity level. You may also set a timer for your humidifier so that it only operates at particular times of the day.
3. Set Up a Pebble Tray
Another option you can go for is to use a pebble tray.
To do this, get a tray that’s a bit wider than your plant’s pot. Next, scatter similar-sized pebbles on the tray until it’s completely covered.
Then, pour water onto the tray until it reaches just below the top of the pebbles. Finally, place your peace lily on top of the pebble tray and make sure that the bottom of the pot isn’t in the water.
That’s an important part to note so as to keep the soil from absorbing the water and soaking your plant’s roots.
3. Water Your Peace Lily
Watering a peace lily can be a challenge because you can easily overwater one if you don’t know much about its characteristics.
An essential attribute that peace lilies possess is that they don’t need frequent watering. In fact, they only need to be watered once a week.
However, if you keep forgetting whether you’ve already watered your plant or not, you can always use physical signs to your advantage.
For example, if you see your peace lily’s leaves starting to droop, that means you need to water your plant soon.
On the other hand, if the soil still feels moist to the touch, then your peace lily doesn’t need to be watered any time soon.
Conclusion
The most remarkable part of the peace lily that gives it its signature sophisticated look is its ivory flowers.
Unfortunately, these blooms, more often than not, turn green for a number of reasons. It could be because of their age, improper fertilization, too much sun exposure, or acclimation challenges.
Whatever the cause may be, rest assured that there are plenty of courses of action you can take to prevent green peace lily flowers.
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