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Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum clevelandii
Ask The Expert: I was give a peace lily for my husbands funeral last April. This is very large plant. I have trouble keeping any house plant. The leaves are dying and turning brown. I’ve tried leaving the light on in the kitchen because I thought it needed light. I would just hate to loose this plant for many reasons. Can you help me bring my poor peace lily back to a healthy life?
Thank you,
Nita
Plant Expert Reply:
I can understand why you want to keep this plant healthy and I will try my best to help you do so. If you haven’t removed the peace lily from the decorative foil the florist puts it in do so now. The foil won’t allow the peace lily to drain properly.
Knowing what the specific care needs for a particular plant is the first step in houseplant survival. Let’s see what kind of care peace lilies (Spathiphyluum clevelandii) need.
They need bright filtered light, but are tolerant to low light levels. They do not like bright sunlight shining down on their leaves — it will cause the leaves to burn. So place your peace in a room that gets a fair amount of light, but do not place it directly in front of a window.
Peace lilies want an evenly moist environment. This means the soil should not dry out completely or reamin soggy. Once a week watering is a good rule of thumb. When you water make sure the soak the water completely and that any excess water drains quickly and easily. You can perform an easy test to determine the water needs of your plant.
Test the soil before watering by sticking finger in soil up to first knuckle — this will help you determine if the plant needs water. If the soil feels moist don’t water. You can also pull a little bit of the soil out and perform the roll test.
Roll the soil into a ball:
- If you can squeeze wtaer easily out of the ball and you haven’t water in a while check the drainage. The plant may be too wet.
- If you can’t roll the soil into a ball, it is too wet.
- If you can roll soil into ball and it stays together but you can’t squeeze water out of it — then it is just fine.
Always water your peace lily with luke warm water and mist the air around the plant occasionally. Peace lilies are susceptible to chlorine damage; let chlorine evaporate from tap water before using or use distilled water. Over-watering may cause leaves to turn yellow and under-watering may cause plants to wilt and the leaf edges to turn yellow or brown.
Light and water are the most important plant care requirements. You can learn more about peace lily care on our peace lily page.
I also recommend trim off the damaged leaves. Hopefully these tips will help you take care of your peace lily. Please keep me posted on your progress.
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