Japanese Peace Lily – Flowering Issues

TheGardenLady received this question from Cecilia.

I have had a Japanese Peace Lily for about 2-3 years. It was flowering when I bought it and it seems to be thriving as it has grown a fair bit but it has not flowered since.   What can I do?

There can be a number of reasons that your Japanese Peace Lily, Spathipyllum has not flowered since you bought it (see here). I hope the plants are healthy.  Always check to see there are no insects or slugs on them. They need brighter light than most houses have but they don’t want sun shining on them. Spathiphyllums are tropical plants that grow in shade under tall trees; but in the house where the environment is not identical to their native habitat, they need much more light. You might want to try using grow lights. They like to be misted. Mist the leaves with soft water and keep the plant on a tray of pebbles filled with water that is not touching the plant. They should be watered only when the top 3 inches of soil is really dry and the plant feels light weight. But be sure you don’t over water the plant. Don’t water too frequently. They want to be rootbound. Do not be too quick to repot them and never move them to a pot more than 2 inches larger diameter than the old one. And for best results they need temperatures between 65 and 90 degrees F.

When you bought the plant, the plants might have come from its native habitat. Or the nursery might have gotten plants that were forced to enable it to bloom. You can go back to the nursery where you bought it and ask some questions about it and complain. Or if the plant is healthy, no spider web looking things on the plants which might be spider mites, you might just enjoy it for its foliage.

One of the challenges of raising plants is trying to emulate the plants native habitat. If you can duplicate its native environment, the plant will do what it was created to do – have flowers. But this is difficult to do especially in the home. Homes can be dry or darker than the outdoors. That is why people like to have green houses where they can try to create the environment of the plants. But even green houses can be challenging.