Why Did My Peace Lily Flower Turn Green? (Causes+How To Fix)

Set among a background of darkest green leaves, flowers of peace lilies symbolize purity, hope, and healing.

Indoor gardeners love to grow peace lilies as ornamental plants for homes. They look appealing for their glossy green foliage and foam-white flowers. Peace lilies are most attractive when they grow white flowers, but what should you do when your peace lily flowers turn green? Let’s find out.

Overfertilizing, not giving enough light or humidity, or exposing it to temperature fluctuations can surprisingly turn peace lily flowers green. Sometimes, peace lily flower starts turning green after completing their lifecycle or at the beginning of the blooming process.

This article will give you the details behind the green flowers on your peace lily plant and how you can deal with them.

Why does the peace lily flower turn green?

Peace lily flower has a single white leaf-like structure which we call spathe, and it stands on a cream-colored stem. The spathe surrounds the spadix that contains tiny flowers clustered around a stem.

The peace lily flower goes through several stages before it blooms like a flower. When it remains in the development stage, the spathe is wrapped around the spadix. 

Once it enters the maturity stage, the spathe unfolds to turn into a flower. The strange thing is that in spathe appears green initially. When the plant becomes ready for blooming, the color slowly changes into cream white. 

When the blooming finally ends, the spathe starts turning green slowly. Greening is nothing but a part of the natural blooming process of the Peace Lily plant. 

Chlorophyll is responsible for this discoloration of the flower. After turning green, the flower acts as a modified leaf. It joins leaves in photosynthesis. Slowly the flowers lose their glossy finish, and the green color then turns to yellow. 

Finally, when it turns brown, consider it dead. The change from yellow to brown may happen fast or may take few days.

So if you see a white flower becoming green, consider two cases – either it is still in the initial stage of blooming, in short, newly formed, or it is at the ending of the blooming cycle-a declined older bloom.

Both the cases are pretty standard parts of a natural blooming process, and you have to accept that. You can’t do anything to sustain that soothing white color on the petals of those flowers forever. 

However, certain factors accelerate it, for example, overfertilization and improper sunlight. But the good thing is that there are some methods to help your peace lily keep the white color a little longer. 

Continue reading to know about those methods in the coming sections of the article. 

What do you do when peace lily flowers turn green?

Typically a peace lily flower lasts for a few months. It first changes into green, and then the color gets darken. Finally, it dies.

But if you observe the peace lily flowers turning green early, it may be a case that you are failing to give your peace lily plant the ideal environment for healthy blooms.

To create a suitable environment for your peace lily flower and hold its appealing look a little longer, you must take the following steps without delay.

Use the right amount of fertilizer.

Regular fertilization helps peace lily to maintain sound health, and in return, helps the flower to live longer. But too much of anything may cause a reverse effect on your peace lily flower. 

You must avoid feeding an excess amount of fertilizer to your peace lily. It leads to faster discoloration of the flower.

Suppose you are already in the habit of using extra fertilizer on your peace lily for better growth, and one day you notice the newborn flower is turning green too soon. Reducing the degree of fertilization at this point will bring no change to your flower, and the problem will persist. 

Repotting, changing the old soil, and using the right amount of fertilization will prevent the issue next time.

When your plant is in the period of active growth and its blooming season, you must use fertilizer. While using it, apply it with a light hand only a couple of times a year. It is best to use a diluted form of fertilizer. 

When your plant has already shown signs of early greening, use half of the strength of the fertilizer.

Also read: What Kind Of Fertilizer Does A Peace Lily Need? (Peace Lily Fertilizer Ratio)

Peace Lilies don’t prefer direct sunlight.

If the peace lily gets direct light, its flowers turn green sooner. This is because the direct light accelerates the rate of photosynthesis, and increases the green pigment, already hidden in the flowers, joins leaves and stems in it. As a result, the appearance of the flower changes to green from white. 

Therefore, it’s better not to keep peace lily in direct sunlight. Instead, keep it in a shady place where it gets regular light that is not so intense.

You may use a curtain on your window or door if your peace lily is placed there. The plant will receive filtered light then. This occurs because the plant performs more photosynthesis in stronger light, and the green pigment in the flowers shows through.

To improve the appearance of your peace lily blooms, move the plant to an area that receives bright, indirect light and avoids direct sunlight.

Also read: What Kind Of Light Does A Peace Lily Need? (Peace Lily Light Requirements)

Provide a warm atmosphere.

Peace Lily flowers can’t cope much with temperature fluctuations. It hates cold and can even die from it. Experts say it loves a warm atmosphere. Therefore, you may keep your peace lily in a room with a slightly warm temperature. 

But don’t use a heater directly on it. Consider buying a moisture meter to check the moisture level of the soil regularly. You can even shift your peace lily to a bathroom with enough sources of filtered light and humidity. 

Maintain the correct humidity. 

Humidity plays a significant role when it comes to the well-being of peace lily flowers. Take care of the humidity, especially in winter, because central heating makes the atmosphere dry. 

Try to maintain a humidity of 50% for any peace lily variety. Using a humidifier or a pebble-tray can easily elevate the indoor humidity.

Also read: Do Peace Lilies Need Misting? (+Ideal Humidity)

Should I cut off the green peace lily flowers?

Pruning off flowers that have already turned green helps the peace lily to bloom more in the growing season. It is also beneficial for the green foliage to remain healthy and bushy. 

Moreover, removing the peace lily flowers that have turned green helps prevent diseases and pests such as mealybugs and yellowing.

Once the blooms of your peace lilies start wilting, you need to prune them for maintaining their appearance. You must use the deadhead pruning method to remove the spent spadix flowers and accompanying drooping spathes.

But here is a word of caution! Deadhead pruning usually helps other houseplants facilitate re-blooming, but it fails when it comes to the peace lily. It can’t help your peace lilies to re-bloom. It is mainly used to restore the charming look of the plant.

Pruning off green flowers also reduces the space that these take up. When the flowers are no longer contributing to the beauty of the plant, it’s better to clip them off. 

Better to wait patiently for the flowers and spathe to wither or expire. Then you can remove them off the plant. You may need to do this after a month when the flowers appear. 

Remember that pinching or deadhead pruning should be performed around late spring or early winter when a few flowers have already started turning green.

When you have pruned your peace lilies a lot, and deadhead pruning or pinching seems tedious to you, you can approach a faster method to deadhead the spent blooms. Just prune away the top half of each peace lily flower. This, too, would be an effective solution to get rid of the faded blossoms.

However, you must be extra careful while performing this method. You may prune the healthy peace lilies while eliminating the faded or green ones. Therefore I would suggest you avoid this method if possible.

Do the following before you clip off the flowers.

• Disinfect a pair of sharp scissors.
• Check the base of the stalk on which the flower rests.

How do you get a peace lily flower to turn white?

You can’t do anything to keep your peace lily flower white for lifelong, and neither can you change a green flower into white.

The best you can do is take care of existing flowers so that they bloom healthy and sustain the original white flowers for at least their natural lifespan. 

Here are few steps you may follow to ensure that your plant produces more healthy, more white flowers. 

Adequate watering

To keep the peace lily flower healthy, water the houseplant once a week. 

While watering, be careful about using the right amount. Overwatering the peace lily doesn’t bring any good to it. It rather makes the soil soggy that affects the flowers.

Maintain the soil moisture

Soil is an essential factor for not just flowers but the whole plant’s well-being. 

Maintaining the moisture level of the soil might be tricky, especially for a beginner. 

Take a help moisture meter and insert it into the soil of the pot. Find out the correct moisture level of the soil before you water or fertilize it.

Maintain right temperature

Temperatures between 68 and 85°F during the day and a drop of 10°F at night are ideal for peace lilies and the blooming. 

Peace lily belongs to tropical region, so we must try to match the humidity level and temperature to mimic the natural atmosphere. This will increase the productivity of the plant, and the flowers will grow more in number. 

How long do peace lily flowers last?

Typically, the peace lily starts producing flowers only when it attains its maturity, at 1-1.5 years of age. 

It produces flowers two times a year, first in winter and then in the fall. The maximum lifespan is one to two months, which is longer than other houseplant flowers.

Final words

The first thing is don’t panic when you see that the peace lily flowers are green, and it may be the case if it’s still in the early stage of blooming. 

The second thing is that there is no magic weapon to keep your flowers white lifelong. It has to be green according to natural processes.

The best you can do is to take care of your peace lily’s health to help it sustain its white color for a bit longer. You must keep an eye on fertilization, temperature, and humidity levels around the plant, ensuring a preferable atmosphere, and last but not least, maintain the correct moisture level of its soil. 

I hope it helps you to have a healthy peace lily with its beautiful and appealing white-colored flowers.

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Ref: ScienceDirect, NCBI, University of Vermont, Nationalgeographic, NC state university, University of Florida, The University of Arkansas, Queensland Government.