People grow peace lily for its beautiful flowers. They are real head-turners. Generally, peace lily bloom is pure white in color. But sometimes the flowers of the plants turn into green color. There are many reasons that causes your peace lily flowers turn into green color. In this article, we will explain why your peace lily flowers are turning green.
The first and most common cause is aging blooms. This is the natural process where the old flowers of the plant turn into green color. You can remove them and let the plant spend its energy to make white flowers. For other reasons, Low light, Acclimation, and over-fertilization are responsible for peace lily flowers turning green.
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What is Aging Bloom and how to prevent it?
When the spathes of peace lily get old, they turn green and also make the white flowers green. They are the bracts that surround the spadix where flowers grow. When the higher amount of chlorophyll triggers the plant to make more energy. This also triggers the plant to make the flowers green.
Scientifically peace lily does not have flowers. It has spadix that is called the flower of the plant.
At the very first stage, you have to choose the best healthy plant from the local garden store. Look for the signs of plant aging and dying blooms. Do not buy such plants.
Young plants stay healthy for a long time because they have young spathes.
Garden stores use Gibberellic acid to encourage heavy white bloom in peace lily flowers. They do this to impress buyers. But once the bloom over after few months. The next bloom comes weak and does not stand for a long time. Tell the garden store representative that you do not need a peace lily plant that is treated with this acid.
Light and Green flowers of peace lily
Light is the second common reason for peace lily flowers turning green in color. Low light will also trigger green color bloom. One to two days of low light will not affect the plants. But if the peace lily plants continuously stay in low light, then this increases the chances of having green flowers.
In low light conditions, the plants become unable to produce their food. The green parts of the plant produce chlorophyll to make plant food. In low light, the spathes start producing chlorophyll to help plants to full fil its chlorophyll needs.
When the spathes make chlorophyll, they turn into green color which makes the spadix also green. In low light, all peace lily plants use spathes to produce chlorophyll even they only produce a limited amount of it.
Caution: Do not put the peace lily in low light right after purchasing it.
Some growers think that bright light causes green leaves in peace lily. But this not true at all. Direct sunlight or high intense indirect bright light burns the leaves. Bright light will not cause the overproduction of chlorophyll. But low light surely causes low production. Which a plant corrects on its behalf by triggering the chlorophyll production in spathes and spadix.
Because it needs a high amount of it to make plant food.
How to correct low light conditions?
You can prevent peace lily flower from turning green by correcting the low light conditions. Peace lily plants need indirect bright light. They can handle the high-intensity light for few days.
Put it close to the sunny window and enjoy having healthy peace lily plants. Make sure the direct sunray cannot fall on the plant. They can damage its leaves. Peace lily has soft plant tissues they cannot stand in direct sun rays. Morning sun rays are good for plants but after 2 hours from the sunrise. You need to move the plant to a bright shady place.
In case you do not have a sunny window at home then you need to use the grow light. LED grow light will be the best to use. They emit the full spectrum light. This light is similar to the sun rays but they are not high intensity. Plants cannot differentiate between natural light and light emitted by grow lights.
Install grow light 2 feet above the plant and under one light you can grow many plants. If you have 200 watts grow light. You can grow 3 peace lily plants under it. The best part is you can grow other plants under the same light if you want some change in your plant collection.
Fertilizer
Fertilizers that are high in nitrogen and iron cause peace lily flower turning green. The higher dosage of such fertilizers increases the production of chlorophyll. Overproduction of it can result in peace lily flowers turning green.
To prevent green flowers in peace lily plants, limit the use of fertilizers. And use the best-balanced liquid fertilizer for good health. There are many reputed brands that make well-balanced fertilizers. Dilute as per the instruction and then give to your lily plants.
If you are using well limited fertilize but still, your peace lily flowers are turning green. Then you are not diluting it properly. Cut the supply of nutrients for a month. Soon your plant will come back on the right track.
Is it okay to cut the green flowers of peaceful lily plants?
There are two opinions one group says green flowers help peace lily to save energy for future bloom. This encourages them to make more flowers. Others said it does not matter having white or green flowers. They say green flowers also look fine on the plant.
I will cut off the green flowers if my plant is healthy and still the bloom is green (from the base). Then I will keep the plant pot in a indirect bright location and limit the use of fertilizers.
Note: In the first few months of bloom peace lily may develop green flowers. This is totally natural and normal. Some varieties of peace lily plants produce green flowers. These types are developed in botanical labs of the USA.
At the time of purchase tell the garden center which type of flower you like on your peace lily plants.
There are other species that produce green patches on the white flowers. This is the new hybrid type of peace lily flowers.
I hope now you know that how to prevent peace lily flowers from turning green? If you still have questions about it. Write us, we’ll reply ASAP.