Whether grown inside or outside, peace lily flowers will brighten up the mood with their attractive foliage and beautiful white blooms. Yet, in some cases, the peace lily flower can change its color. So, why do peace lily flowers turn green?
It’s pretty normal for the peace lily flower to turn green if you’ve just bought it, as this is part of the plant’s adjusting mechanism after moving to a new environment. After transferring your peace lily to a new pot, it might suffer from transplant shock that turns the white blooms to green. Receiving too much fertilizer, too much light, or not enough light can also affect the blooms’ color. Finally, the flowers on your peace lily plant can become green because of old age.
After turning green, you can still do a lot to save your peace lily flower. Keep reading to learn why the flowers turn green and what to do about it.
Why Do Peace Lily Flowers Turn Green? 6 Possible Reasons
When grown in the right conditions, peace lily flowers bloom twice a year in spring and fall. Yet, sometimes, the flowers can turn green instead of showing off their beautiful white color.
There are actually several reasons why this happens.
Natural Process
The flowers of your peace lily turning green at the end of the blooming season is perfectly normal. The flower itself is made of two structures, the spathe, which is a leaf-like structure attached to the stem, and the spadix inside the spathe.
The spathe is naturally green, and the flower that grows inside the spadix is white. At the beginning of the blooming season, the flower remains hidden, and it emerges from the spadix and starts to unfold. So, the flower can appear green while it’s still developing before it can show off its creamy white hue.
By the end of the blooming season, the flower transforms into a leaf, changing its color to green. After that, it turns yellow, then brown, and eventually, it falls off the plant. Flowers take about two months to fully develop until they fall off your peace lily plant.
So, if the flower turns green as part of the plant’s natural growth process, this shouldn’t be alarming as long as it’s happening gradually. The flower changes its color to support the plant’s growth so it can produce more food instead of using up the plant’s internal energy.
Related: Why Are the Leaves on My Roses Turning Yellow?
Too Much Fertilizer
Peace lily flowers need adequate fertilizing as this will support healthy growth and blooming, but if the plant is receiving too much fertilizer, the flowers might change their color to green. This happens, especially when using a fertilizer that contains too much iron.
The frequent feeding helps keep the plant strong and supports blooming. However, you should only apply an adequate amount of fertilizer during the growing and blooming seasons, as applying fertilizer in winter can actually harm the plant.
Because of the excessive nutrients, the plant will start to use more chlorophyll, which changes the color of the spathe to green. As a result, your peace lily flowers will appear as if they’ve changed color from white to green.
Too Much Light
The peace lily plant thrives in indirect sunlight and partial shade. However, it needs access to sunlight to perform photosynthesis and produce energy to support its growth.
However, when receiving too much sun, your peace lily starts to perform photosynthesis more often, and the green pigment becomes more apparent, changing the color of the flowers to green.
Not Enough Light
Lack of sunlight can also affect the color of your peace lily flower. This plant thrives in partial shade but still needs access to the sun to perform the photosynthesis process.
When kept in the shade, the plant will start to optimize the chlorophyll in its cells to maximize the amount of food produced. Eventually, the flowers will turn green because the plant needs more energy.
Adjusting to the New Environment
After buying the peace lily plant or transferring it to a new spot, the plant can experience some stress. These changes can cause the flower color to change from white to green.
When grown by professionals, peace lily plants are grown in optimum conditions, receiving the right amount of nutrients. However, being transferred to your house, there might be some changes, and the plant needs time to adjust.
During this period, the plant will focus on providing itself with energy to support its existence. This can turn the flowers green due to more photosynthesis.
This can also happen because of a transplant shock. Unfortunately, most plants suffer after being transplanted, especially if they’re not handled with care. After transplanting your peace lily to a new pot or location in your garden, the plant will start to produce more energy to establish its roots and support its existence at the new location.
Aging Process
As your peace lily plant gets older, it will start to focus more on producing food and less on producing flowers. This is because the blooming process depletes much of the plant’s energy, which it needs to support its existence as it grows older.
Since the flower is actually part of the leaf, the plant will start to utilize the chlorophyll present in the blooms, and they’ll change their color to green. The flower might turn white again during the pollination phase, but it will soon restore its green color.
What Should I Do if My Peace Lily Flowers Turn Green?
The flowers on your peace lily plant turning green can be a little frustrating. Yet, in some cases, all you need to do is to wait and give the plant time to adjust. In other cases, you’ll actually have to intervene and help the blooms restore their color.
Determining the root cause of the problem can be a little challenging, so you need to try a few solutions to see how your plant reacts.
Give the Plant Time
If you’ve just brought your plant home or have recently transplanted it, you might just need to wait and give your peace lily time to adjust. The peace lily plant can change the color of its blooms because it’s adjusting to its new location until the roots have been established.
Handle With Care
Most people grow peace lilies as an indoor purifying plant. So, you might be prompted to move your plant to a bigger pot every now and then.
While doing so, you should be extremely careful as too much handling can harm the root system. This leads to a transplant shock that the plant takes a while to recover from. After a while, the blooms will turn white again because the plant is strong enough to survive.
Adjust the Amount of Sunlight
In order to keep your peace lily plant healthy, you need to provide it with optimum growing requirements. This includes the amount of sunlight it receives. Your peace lily plant will thrive in partial shade, so it’s best to plant it in a location where it can receive some bright indirect sunlight.
If you have been growing your peace lily plant in the garden, plant some taller plants to provide shade if the plant is receiving too much sun, and remove any obstructions that might be affecting the amount of sunlight the plant gets. Placing your peace lily plant near a south or west-facing window will provide the right mix of sunlight.
Fertilize Adequately
Make sure you’re only feeding the plant during the growing and blooming season, and use a slow-release fertilizer at the beginning of the season to adequately release the needed nutrients. You can also use regular plant food and apply it weekly to support blooming.
Avoid feeding your peace lilies too often, as this will affect the plant’s growth and turn the blooms green. You should also avoid feeding the plant in winter.
Reducing the amount of fertilizer applied to your peace lilies won’t change the current green color of the blooms. However, it will prevent future white blooms from turning green. If you still notice that the blooms on your peace lily are turning green, you should use only half of the recommended amount of fertilizer during the growing and blooming seasons.
Accept It
Your peace lily will live between 3 and 5 years, even with optimum care. So, towards the end of the plant’s life, you’ll start to see more flowers turning green as part of the aging process.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do if the flowers on your peace lily are turning green because of aging. However, by ensuring that you’re growing your peace lilies in the optimum light, moisturizer, soil, and humidity conditions, you can extend the time the flowers stay white.
Also Check: Why Are My Roses Drooping?
Wrap Up: Why Do Peace Lily Flowers Turn Green?
Peace lily flowers are naturally creamy white, but in some cases, they turn green. This can happen because of the natural photosynthesis process or can be more common when the plant is approaching the end of its life.
The blooms can become green when you’re applying too much fertilizer or the plant is receiving too much or too little light. Adjusting the plant’s growing conditions can help maintain the color of the blooms.