Growing Peace Lilies

How to Care for Peace Lilies (Spathiphyllum)

Peace lilies are one of the most common houseplants because they’re easy to grow and beautiful, too! Here’s everything you need to know about caring for a peace lily in your home.

About Peace Lilies

Peace lilies are tropical, evergreen plants that thrive on the forest floor, where they receive dappled sunlight and consistent moisture. Replicating these conditions in the home is the key to getting your peace lily to be happy and healthy.

With enough light, peace lilies may produce white to off-white flowers in the early summer and continue to bloom throughout the year.

Most household varieties of peace lily grow up to 16 inches tall, but larger outdoor cultivars can reach 6 feet in height. Peace lilies are not cold-hardy plants, so they may only be grown outdoors in warm, humid climates.

Is the Peace Lily Plant Poisonous?

Yes. All parts of the peace lily plant contain calcium oxalate—a substance that may cause stomach and respiratory irritation if ingested in large amounts. Keep peace lilies out of reach of small children and pets. Other common plants that contain calcium oxalate include daffodils, true lilies, and hyacinths.

Planting

How to Plant, Transplant, and Divide Peace Lilies

Use a well-draining, all-purpose potting soil.
Repotting annually in the spring is good for the peace lily, as the plant will appreciate the refreshed soil.
Eventually, the peace lily may grow too large for its pot, at which point it can be divided. Remove the plant from its pot and split it into smaller plants, being sure to leave several leaves per clump. The peace lily grows from rhizomes, so it can tolerate a bit of tough treatment during dividing.

Can Peace Lilies be Grown in Water?

Yes, peace lilies can be grown in water; they are often sold in vases without any soil. Ideally, the base of the plant should be suspended above the water line, either by a specially-made insert or a layer of small stones. This allows the roots to grow into the water, but keeps the base of the plant and its leaves from being constantly wet, which can cause rot.

Care

How to Care for a Peace Lily

Keep the soil moist, but do not overwater. Peace lilies can tolerate short periods of dry soil, but their leaves will start to brown if neglected for too long.
Peace lilies are sensitive to chemicals commonly found in tap water, such as fluoride, which may cause brown leaf tips. Use filtered, room-temperature water, if possible.
Peace lilies enjoy high humidity. Misting their leaves or placing their pot atop a moistened tray of gravel can help to increase humidity.
Peace lilies are not heavy feeders, so fertilize only occasionally. To encourage spring and summer growth, fertilize every 6 weeks or so with a balanced houseplant fertilizer starting in late winter.
Peace lilies are a tropical plant, so keep them in temperatures above 60°F (16°C) and away from cold, drafty windows. They do best in temperatures upwards of 70°F (21°C).
Keep these plants out of direct afternoon sunlight, but in a well-lit area. An east-facing window is ideal, as they will be exposed to the warmth of the morning sun but avoid the intensity of mid-day rays.

Peace Lily plant

How to Get Peace Lilies to Flower

Most often, if no flowers are appearing, the plant is not getting enough light. Peace lilies are very tolerant of low light, but low light does not mean no light! To encourage flowering, move the plant to a brighter location, where it will receive bright, indirect light.
Green flowers, weak-looking flowers, or a general lack of flowers can be caused by improper fertilizing. In the case of green flowers, cut back on fertilizing. In the case of weak-looking flowers or a lack of flowers, try switching to a fertilizer made for flowering plants. This type of fertilizer will have a higher amount of phosphorous, which plants need for blooming.

Pests/Diseases

Brown leaf tips are commonly caused by excessive light, over-fertilization, or lack of water and/or low humidity. Keeping the plant on a tray of moistened gravel or misting the leaves can help to increase humidity.
Yellow leaves may be caused by overwatering, underwatering, or old age (of the leaf).
Scale and mealybugs will happily take up residence on the plant, if given the opportunity. A thorough wipe-down of leaves with soapy water or insecticidal soap can be effective at stopping them, though repeated applications will be necessary.

Recommended Varieties

Specialty varieties of peace lilies are not easy to come by in most garden centers; you will likely need to order them from an online source.

Spathiphyllum wallisii is a smaller peace lily, reaching only 12 inches tall.
‘Petite’ is smaller still, at approximately 8–10 inches.
‘Sensation’ is the largest variety available, capable of growing up to 4–6 feet in height and width.
‘Domino’, is a medium-size variety with attractively variegated leaves.
‘Mojo Lime’, which has lime-green foliage, is another medium-size peace lily.

Wit & Wisdom

In NASA studies, it was discovered that peace lilies can help improve air quality, removing formaldehyde, benzene, and carbon monoxide from the surrounding air. Read more about air-purifying houseplants!
The peace lily is said to have gotten its common name from its white flowers, which rise timidly above its green foliage and resemble small, white flags of peace.
Despite the peace lily’s common name, it is not related to true lilies at all.
The plant’s interesting blooms are also the source of its Latin name, Spathiphyllum, meaning “spathe-leaf.” The flowers consist of the spathe (the white, sheath-like leaf) and the spadix (the spike of small flowers located within the spathe).

Peace Lily flower. Photo by W. Carter/Wikimedia.
A peace lily’s flower consists of a spathe (white sheath) and spadix (green or off-white spike of flowers).

Reader Comments

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Peace lily's temperature range

I want to put my peace lilies on my south-facing screened-in porch. I live in the New Orleans, LA, area. What kind of summer time temps. can these peace lilies handle? They will get no direct sunlight where I will put them.

at peace with peace lily

Peace lilies tend to like heat (up to 100°F!), but not direct sun, so it should do fine.

That said, these plants can be finicky.

Why is Flower dripping sap

Why is the flower on the peace lily dripping sap from it

peace lily drippings

Usually the dripping occurs on the leaf and it is usually caused by scaly insects that suck sap/juices out of the plant. Scale insects are difficult to control; plants need to be sprayed with insecticidal soap every 7 to 10 days, until the infestation is eliminated. It might be wiser to replace the plant.

peace lily leaves/flower get brown

I have problem with my peace lily from a week.
Leaves develop brown edges. Plants begin to wilt. Flower buds fail to develop or drop from the plant before they open. Flowers shrivel soon after opening.
Can you please help me what care need to be taken to grow properly?What should I do?

Peace lilly

I inherited my peace lilly from my grandmother in 1993 when i bought her home. I have found pictures of the plant from 1957 in the living room where it still is today.

plant dating from 1957

That settles it! We’re all moving to your house, where peace lilies are at peace!

should we constantly rotate our peace lily for even growth?

Our peace lily lives happily on our back screened porch which faces west. the lily is on the interior side of the porch against the house so doesn’t receive direct sunlight but certainly gets a lot of afternoon light. consequently it tends to have its best face of leaves on one side while the other side towards the wall is somewhat spindly. I am fine with that but my wife wants to continually rotate the pot to let the back leaves have a turn at the light as it were. i think that stresses the plant too much to have to constantly figure out where the light is coming from. Am I overthinking this?

Rotating Plants

Good of you to put the plant’s needs above your own! However, it won’t stress out the plant out to rotate it. Doing so will just keep it more balanced and give it a healthier appearance.

Peace Lily Left Outside in the Cold

So my boyfriend thought it would be good to leave my house plants out on the porch for sunlight and accidentally left them out there over night. My peace lily is now very droopy and the leaves have started curling and turning brown. It is from my grandfathers funeral so it is really important that I keep it alive. How can I save my plant?

Peace Lily

HI, I have a Peace Lily plant from my daughters funeral that I have survived for 30 years. I would like to purchase a light for winter time when I bring it indoors. Any suggestions on what type of light to buy?

Indoor Lighting

A strong LED bulb is your best bet. Look for a bulb that is labeled “daylight” or “cool white,” as these bulbs will provide the best light for foliage houseplants like peace lilies. An LED bulb with wattage equivalent to a 75–100 watt incandescent bulb will be bright enough.

Peace Lily

I have a Huge Peace Lily that is over 26 yrs old. I got it from my brother's funeral so I want to keep it going. It is in a Huge pot now, but How do we know when it is time to split the plant? It has leaves going yellow and when I felt the soil, it seems hard and dry. I had just given it a 1/2 gal of water 3 days ago. I give it a 1/2 gal every Sunday. Why is it dying? Is it needing to be split?? Please help!!!!

Peace Lily

I've tried many things to boost my peace lily from droop. Moved it from cold drafty location to inside to southern facing window. I have watered when top of soil was dry but not overwatered. The leaves have remained very green just keep drooping. This plant was purchased over 3 years ago for my daughter's wedding so it has sentimental value and I would like to keep it going. I had repotted to larger pot in that period of time as it leaves began yellowing and dying off. What should i do?

Peace lilly

I've had the same peace Lilly for years. I've divided it many times. At one point, I had it growing in my 30 gallon fish tank. The roots covered the bottom of the tank and kept the water very clean. All I did was circulate the water. The fish loved hiding inside the roots, stem and leaves.

Timely advice

My brother recently passed away and I was given a beautiful peace lily. I am keeping these instructions close by to make sure I am properly caring for it. Thank you.

Deseased mother'd lily dying

I've had a peace lily that was given to me by my mother before she passed away 3 years ago it always was blooming and beautiful when we lived in Texas then my husband got stationed in Washington state and it did good throughout the hole winter and about 2 months into the new year it just started dying I took it to a plant specialist and they told me to transplant to a smaller pot so I did but the leaves are just Brown and dying everything is just hanging will water and it will pick up a small amount then just go back I've had a few flowers bloom out but they also died I wish I could attach a picture to show yall

Peace Lily

Shannan, I'm no expert but know how sentimental things like this become. Have you tried the fertilizer mentioned in the tips on this site? My friend also has a peace lily from when his mom died almost 15 years ago. He is very protective of this plant but outside of what is listed here, I don't think he does anything differently. In my experience, repotting did not work but I didn't use good, fresh soil. We also have highly fluoridated water where I live. Another thing I did that killed one was watered it from a pitcher directly from the dish washer...that had remnants of dried detergent in it...not a good idea. Hope something here helps but also hope others with more expertise respond.

Peace lilly

I do worm composting, and my peace Lilly loves when I top dress the soil with that compost. I generally don't repot unless I need to divide. A friend of mine repotted hers with soil she bought in the store that had a lot of spaghum moss in it. Spaghum moss is very water resistant when it has dried out. You need to soak it for a couple days so it fully hydrates. She didn't know this. She thought she was thoroughly watering her plant because the water was coming out of the bottom, but the soil was totally dry because the spaghum moss wasn't absorbing and water. Peace lillies need moist soil.

Brown leaf tips/yellowing leaves

I bought my Peace lily at a Home Depot about three weeks ago. The tips of most leaves are turning brown and some leaves are turning yellow too. The flowers look healthy though. I’ve tried changing the room, making sure it’s getting adequate indirect light. I check the soil before watering to make sure I’m not overwatering the plant. I even tried putting it on a plate with water and pebbles. It came with the fertilizer so I haven’t used any more. Don’t want my plant to die.

Can Peace Lily be planted outdoors?

I got a huge peace lily that is really too big for my space. Can I plant it outdoors. If so what process should I use to care for it to keep it going?

Peace Lily Outdoors

Peace lilies are a tropical plant, so they’ll only survive outdoors in conditions that mimic their natural habitat (humid, warm). If you live in an area that’s not quite tropical, you could keep it outdoors for the summer season and indoors otherwise!

peace lily

I got a HUGE peacelilly today and its real heavy and large it was from a flower shop it looks like too much plant for what pot its in and it feels dirt poor it was from a loved ones funeral and i want it to lie please help!!!

white flowers turning yellow

Help!

Yellow flowers on Peace Lily

Yellow leaves on a peace Lily usually means that the plant may be allowed to get too dry in between watering. Thoroughly saturate the root ball when you water.
If just the lowest and oldest leaves turn yellow, this means it needs food, specifically nitrogen. Just cut off the yellow leaves at the bottom, where they attach to the plant, they won’t green up again anyway. Then pick up some houseplant fertilizer and apply it according to the label directions. If a plant is growing in low light, it won’t need much fertilizer so probably just half rate will be fine. If the plant gets some sun or higher light, apply at full strength or more frequently.

red peace lily

I have a red peace lily plant for the past 8 months. The leaves and the plant itself looks healthy and always blooms red flowers but most of the leaves are brown or yellow and the flowers pale red. The flowers seem to be growing in a curl. I keep the pot in the shade of other bigger plants in my balcony as that’s the only space with indirect sunlight. I guess it is getting exposed to the sun. Should I change the spot? Case everything else seems fine with the plant.Can you help me?

Peace Lilies & Humidity

Peace lilies enjoy relatively high humidity; it could be that the air is too dry where the plant currently is. Make sure that you’re watering it enough, and perhaps try placing the plant on a tray filled with pebbles and water—the water will evaporate over time. As long as it doesn’t receive direct sunlight, lighting shouldn’t be an issue.

Dying blooms

I’ve had my peace lily for about 3 months. The leaves look great, but the blooms are turning all brown and drying up. Assuming that’s a natural part of the process, but what do I do with those now? They look terrible, so I’d like to cut them off, but not sure that’s the best thing to do. Can you help me?

Cut Dying Blooms

Yes, you’re correct—the flowers do eventually die off, at which point you can simply cut them off. The flower stem immediately below where you make the cut will eventually turn brown and wilt, and it can be removed, too.

Droopy after transplanting

I had a peace lily as part of a floral 'basket' that I got for a gift. There were 2 small pots w/peace lilies and 1 small pot of ivy. I kept them at work until they seemed to get too big for the pots.
Took them home, planted the peace lily in a larger pot (but not too large for the plant, about twice the size it was in) in Miracle Gro indoor potting mix soil with some river rock for drainage. This was last Saturday, and it has not been a week yet, but my lily looks like she is going to die! The soil is moist but she just gets droopier and droopier. Will she snap out of it?