Indoor plants that will grace you with both interesting foliage and lovely flowers are few and far between, making the peace lily a crown jewel of the houseplant family.
The white spathes unfolding against the lush, green foliage give the peace lily an elegance and ageless presence in any home, which can cause quite the disappointment when it decides not to bloom.
Despite the peace lily being relatively undemanding, you may see issues with blooming when environmental conditions aren’t up to their tropical standards. Or maybe it just isn’t the right time.
Luckily, most of the problems your peace lily is facing are completely fixable, so keep reading to find out why you aren’t seeing any blooms and what you can do to remedy it.
1. Not Receiving Enough Sunlight
Both the most common cause of not blooming and the easiest to fix, a lack of sunlight will keep your peace lily from getting the energy it needs to produce flowers.
When it comes to houseplants, it can take some time to figure out the right placement in your home for sunlight exposure. Peace lilies can actually thrive even when their conditions aren’t fully met, but insufficient light will deny you from getting any of those charming flowers.
The location that you want will give your peace lily bright, indirect light for about 6 hours per day. Avoid direct sunlight because this will lead to scorching where you’ll notice the leaves yellowing and the tips turning brown.
Near north and west-facing windows are the best place for a peace lily. North-facing windows are best for summertime so that they have enough sunlight, without too much direct light. West-facing windows are better in the winter because they provide added sunlight that north windows can’t provide in the colder months.
The tell-tale sign that your peace lily isn’t getting enough sunlight is lush foliage with a lack of blooms. It isn’t much to go on, but if all other conditions for your mature peace lily are satisfactory, then chances are they aren’t receiving enough light.
If you still aren’t sure if you have your peace lily in a suitable place, you can always get a light meter. I actually recommend one that assesses light, soil moisture, and pH so that you can stay on top of all of these conditions and give your peace lily the best chance of blooming.
2. Soil/Nutrient Insufficiency
Native to rainforests, peace lilies are accustomed to moderately fertile soil, without being too rich. Even though they aren’t as demanding as other houseplants with fertilization, flowering just won’t happen unless your peace lily is receiving the nutrients it needs.
During the spring and summer months, you’ll want to use a balanced fertilizer every two to three weeks and then every six to eight weeks in the winter. A 20-20-20 balanced, liquid fertilizer is great to encourage blooming.
For optimal soil and root health, repotting is a necessary step for any houseplant owner. If the roots are compacted in their container, they won’t be able to get the essential nutrients from the soil to thrive.
Peace lilies don’t mind their roots being a little overcrowded in their container but will definitely need to get repotted as they grow.
As long as you’re fertilizing as needed, you only need to repot when it’s necessary, about every three or four years. Plants weren’t meant to live in pots, so refreshing the soil and releasing the roots from compacted soil will give them access to more nutrients and improve the overall health of the plant.
Some signs to look for when it’s time to repot are roots coming through the drainage holes, wilting and yellow leaves, and roots circling the bottom of the pot. And of course, a lack of flowers.
3. Temperature and Humidity Aren’t Suitable
Being a tropical plant, peace lilies thrive best in warm and humid environments.
While not overly sensitive to temperature changes, they will produce more flowers when kept in a warm environment. The ideal temperature for your peace lily is between 68°F and 85°F during the daytime and dropping about 10°F cooler at night.
Temperatures that reach 85°F and higher will cause your peace lily to stop blooming altogether and the leaves will start to droop.
On the other hand, temperatures 60°F and below will stunt the growth of your peace lily entirely and also prevent any flowers. This is especially important to keep watch on in the winter months.
Maintaining the right humidity will also make sure you’re seeing those lovely blossoms. If possible, you’ll want the humidity to be around 50-60% for your peace lily. If this is a problem that you’re having, you can look into getting a plant humidifier or simply placing your pot on a tray of pebbles with water on the bottom.
4. Age of Your Peace Lily
Whether too young or too old, peace lilies won’t bloom if they aren’t strong enough to put energy into producing flowers.
Peace lilies don’t begin to flower well until they are at least two or three years old. Until that point, they are growing foliage and strengthening their roots before they are mature enough to yield flowers.
On the other hand, they also aren’t able to bloom when they get too old. Flowering is the peace lily’s way of reproducing and just like humans, this process will stop occurring when they’ve reached an older age.
They may continue to grow foliage for years before their lifespan ends, but you’ll typically stop seeing flowers around their 10th year.
5. It’s Not the Right Time of Year
The season for peace lily flowering is between February and September, where they will generally bloom once in the spring and again in the fall.
Nevertheless, this isn’t always the case.
Unfortunately, peace lilies can be quite unpredictable when it comes to blooming. Under their natural conditions, they are known to flower during the shorter days of winter and then sporadically throughout spring as the days become longer.
It is also very possible that your peace lily was treated with gibberellic acid by the grower you purchased it from to speed up the flowering process, which may have been why you saw flowers on them in the summer or winter. As we just learned, young peace lilies need time to mature before they are able to produce flowers, and this plant hormone forces them to bloom before they are ready.
When this happens, your peace lily may flower less, if at all, for a season or two before they are able to bloom on their own. You’ll need to be patient when this happens and give your peace lily the best environmental conditions to start reproducing again without chemical treatment.
6. Poor Water Drainage
I know I sound like a broken, but soil health is so important when growing any plant and houseplants are particularly susceptible to problems from watering.
Being subjected to a pot, rather than a large garden, overwatering can happen easily. Especially when there is poor drainage. Root rot is a hard problem to fix, so making sure you are watering correctly should be a top priority in caring for your peace lily.
You’ll want to saturate your peace lily until you see water coming through the drainage holes beneath the pot. Rather than keeping the soil consistently moist, you should wait until the soil has almost fully dried out before you water again.
It’s also a good idea to dump the water out of the drainage tray so they the bottom of the pot isn’t sitting in standing water. This is a simple mistake than can cause root rot.
Signs that your peace lily has poor drainage are the leaves turning yellow, wilting and browning around the edges of the leaves, and the soil being soggy rather than moist.
If this sounds like a problem that you’re facing, you’ll want to let the soil dry out completely before you water again. You should also consider transplanting to a container that has better drainage if needed and repot with new soil to help strengthen the roots.
Put the Peace Back in Peace Lily!
The lovely, white flowers that we just discussed throughout this article are a universal symbol of peace, representing the white flag that is waved as the signal of truce.
So to literally bring the peace back into your peace lily, make sure the environment is suitable to their needs, know that they aren’t the most consistent bloomers, and be aware of their age as a factor in blooming.
Keep in mind: finding the right spot for your houseplant is a trial and error process. Show yourself kindness during this endeavor because it may take some time before you get it right.
Written By
Adriano Bulla
A qualified organic gardener and permaculturist with many years experience “getting his hands dirty”, Adriano Bulla has been writing books and articles on horticulture, garden design and innovatve growing methods.