Peace Lily

While we were away on holiday over the Christmas of 2010 our house froze and so did our houseplants. My Peace Lily looked sad but was alive so I was determined to nurse it back to health. It had always been a lovely flowering plant. More than a year on I'm still struggling. I've now divided it into five plants and have them variously in the bathroom, living room and greenhouse. They are all alive but in varying degrees of unhappiness and don't seem to be developing good root systems. This is a picture of the best of the bunch which has been in the bathroom and you can see it has new leaves, but others are drooping. I know I could just buy a new one but I'm feeling stubborn!  Any ideas please? I have of course fed and watered them to the best of my ability.

This plant does like moisture, but you may be overwatering.      I have one which is very lush with its foliage, but never flowers.   Can anyone tell me why not, please?

Hello bigsweirguru and gardengirl6,

Bigsweirguru, good for you for persevering, it's always more fun that way. Your plant needs low light in summer (it will be burnt by direct sunlight) and strong light in winter. It wants humidity and would like you to mist its leaves regularly. Stand it on a tray of pebbles which you keep wet so that as the water evaporates, it surrounds your plant with humid air. The compost should be rich in organic matter, but free-draining. The leaves will flop when it needs water. You should always keep it warm, a bathroom could get too cold but it does depend where it is. Propagation is done by division, as you have done. Looking at your pot, the compost looks a little stale, so top dress it with fresh compost and add a little slow release fertiliser to your top dressing. Take care with feeding because it can burn the leaves. Over-feeding promotes leaf growth at the expense of flowers. (This is probably why yours didn't flower gardengirl6). If you have added slow-release fertiliser to the top dressing that should be enough for the next few months. I would be tempted to cut off the darker leaves in your picture, they look as though they're on the way out, but the light green ones look healthy.

Good luck both of you,

Emma

gardnersworld.com team

any idea what soil/compost peace lilies prefer. I have had mine 5 years and suddenly after flowering loads this spring it is looking a bit sick. the centre seems to have died and it has left me with 5 smaller plants around the outside of the pot. I am going to split it and replant in fresh compost but dont know what sort of soil they like

Multi-purpose is fine-you can buy houseplant compost but I never have

Thanks sotongeoff

My peace lily which I've had for six years has thrived but only in our bedroom away from the window, I water it when I remember feed it rarely and it flowers about mothers day which is when I was given it. I had it in the living room for a while but it started to look "ill" so back upstairs via the bathroom for a shower, I lie it on its side on the bath rack and give it a lukewarm shower to clean the leaves that's all I do.I think its great you haven't given up on yours I had to nurse a jasmine, our bathroom window was left open on one of the first nights of frost we had last year I had to cut it right back, re pot and feed it, its looking well again its great what a wee bit of tlc will do. Good luck