‘Best place’ to put peace lily in homes to keep plants happy and flowering

Staff
By Staff

Peace lilies are a popular houseplant, but many people struggle to get them to flower. A gardening expert has shared the ‘best location’ to place a peace lily to ensure it blooms beautiful flowers

Spathiphyllum flower with white flowers in bloom on a windowsill with bright light from the window.
Peace lilies should be kept away from direct light(Image: Natalia Kokhanova via Getty Images)

Gardening and plant expert Lucie Bradley from Easy Garden Irrigation has explained the “best location” for a peace lily to flower. The first window of the year for the peace lily to bloom has passed in spring, there’s an opportunity for the peace lily to flower in late summer or early autumn.

Plus, peace lily blooms can last for up to eight weeks, meaning you could have a beautiful display for a fair while. Even though the green foliage is beautiful, there’s no doubt that the white spathe adds a touch of elegance to the plant.

“The usual culprit when it comes to your peace lily not flowering is a problem with how much light it is receiving,” Bradley told Express.co.uk. “Too much direct sunlight or too little light will both prevent your plant from producing blooms.”

She said peace lilies thrive “if grown in bright, indirect sunlight so near a north or east-facing window should be the best location”.

Too bright of a location could cause the leaves to become scorched from the sun, which would lead to yellowing leaves and brown tips.

Spathiphyllum or Peace Lilies on display for sale at a flower market in the East End of London, UK.
Peace lilies will bloom again in autumn – here’s how to make that happen(Image: Sergio Amiti via Getty Images)

“If your plant is not getting sufficient light then it will start to seek out light by producing longer stems,” said Bradley.

The peace lily will produce “less foliage and you might see the leaves growing horizontally to reach more light”.

It’s also entirely possible that the plant could be too young to produce white flowers. The expert explained: “Just because when you bought your peace lily it was in flower doesn’t mean it was old enough to be flowering.”

Peace lilies in pots smaller than 15cm across are likely too immature for natural blooming and have been “forced” into flowering with “carefully controlled conditions and given gibberellic acid – a plant hormone”.

She added: “After this type of treatment your plant may flower for a couple of months and then stop until it’s old enough to naturally flower.”

Bradley noted that only when a peace lily reaches the age of two to three years will it consistently produce its signature white flowers, provided “as long as they receive the correct care and attention”.

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