A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2003 My peace lily needs help

Okeys.. my science teacher just gave me a part of her peace lily. Right now the leaves are starting(just starting) to droop and feel thin. I gave it enough water, its in a decent amount of sunlight, and i have a radiant heater keeping the room at a warm, but not cold, and not very warm temperature. Are there any suggestions?

Hello Ringontheworld,
I'd like to Welcome You to
The Garden Helpers Forum,
Just so you know

But we have a great group of gardeners
here, and someone will swing through
sometime and answer your question?????

In the meantime, you might want to go
to the FORUM SEARCH and type in Peace lily
there'll be a few posts that come up on it.

And if you go to the GARDEN SEARCH and type in
Peace lily you'll find some of Bill's information
from the site here about them as well.

But please stick around, enjoy the good reading.
And we hope you'll stick around and join the group.
Weezie
And Please let us know the out come of your plant.
We always enjoy hearing about them.

Hello Ringontheworld: That is an ingenious name. Are you into astronomy?
There should be someone with you any day now so just hang on.

This curious Catlover was wondering how you happened onto this site?
There are a lot of great people here so if you have other questions feel free to stop by anytime.

Catlover

Well, i found this site because i was looking for feeding information on this peace lily. this lily was my teachers "pride and joy" so to speak, and i really want to take good care of it. and no im not really an astronomer, ring on the world is the name of a song i really like. no one has heard of it, tho because its a japanese song. And any suggestions would be nice, im only 15 and dont really know a whole lot about planting yet.

Ok Ring,
First, let me welcome you to the garden helper. catlover and weezie are great gardeners and really know their stuff. Not to mention some others who wander around here. But, here you go on the peace liiy.
First, if the leaves are turning brown, that can be a problem. second, check to see if the soil dries between waterings. Peace lilies are wonderful in that when they are established, they will start to droop when the soil dries out. that is the perfect time to water them. also, how big is your pot? peace lilies like to be slightly on the pot-bound side. not too much but enough that they feel "at home". Kinda like being is a warm blanket. next, if it is not quite happy, then compare your environment to that of your teacher's lily. they should be close. although, peace lilies are a forgiving plant.

there are other professionals who drop by now and again who will have more info, I am just an amatuer. but with plants, it is also good to go with your gut instinct. they will tell you what is what if you pay attention to them.

thank you thank you. the pot is the biggest pot we could get at walmrt, and its a self watering. (my teacher suggested it, so you only have to feed it once a week) and its a really really big peace lily. before my teacher cut the two sprouts from each other, the original pot weighed around 100 pounds. but im going to move it to a room that i see gets more sun every day. what do you recomend about heating? i live in central kentucky, and the fall weather is jsut starting to hit us.


for those who are curious, soon i will have a picture of lily(thats what we call her) on my website. ill write a reply in this later when i get it

A photo of your new plant acquisition would be very helpful. (My 16 year old son might enjoy a photo of you!)

Recently cut and potted peace lily plants are in a fragile state until they develop their own vigorous root system. Keep the soil damp at all times, but don't water so often that the soil always feels wet. Peace lilies don't like direct sunlight, but they do like bright indirect light. Right in front of a north facing window is best. Temperatures should be above 65 degrees at all times. You may need to move it away from the window on cold nights if the window is drafty. Don't feed your peace lily at all until next spring.

oh, thank you! i understand everything but the feed part. I'm not going to have to like make ritualistic animal sacrifices to feed lily, am i? but i do have a window facing the north that would work fine. i am going to get a picture of lily very soon, and im sorry to disapoint your son, but im a boy too. please donmt feel embarased about that, trust me im used to it i get it all the time. but yeah, i cant kill things, because it goes against my morals, so i cant do the whole animal sacrifice thing. i hope you dont mean that tho

Ring, you make me feel really good about the future! I love peace lilies, and have 1 that I have had for 13 years. I got it at my mother's funeral and it has hung on to spite me sometimes! The feeding that Will is referring to is the watering and the combination of water with diluted liquid plant food. If your plant is till green, that is great! you are doing it right.
As I said in my earlier post, the main thing is to watch the soil and the leaves. they will droop when they are thirsty. And Will is right, if the soil gets too wet, it will kill the plant. The trick is (and it is difficult sometimes) to make sure that the leaves are drooping AND the soil is on the dry side before you water. If the leaves are droopy and the soil is wet, you have another whole set of problems (unfortunately, I've been there and done that!) As for heat, if your house is comfortable for you, it will be fine for the lily. Like I said, one of mine has been around for 13 years.

ah, thank you again. and even tho i dont think ki did, theres always the possibility, what would i do if i overwatered it? i have a self waterng planter, so theres a reservoir of water down there. would i just pour that out?

hi ring, i think it is great that you like plants. you may have over watered peace lilies like to be dry between waterings.

if i did overwater it, does it still have hope? how would i go about saving it? i really do not want to let this lily die. and its starting to scare me

to check to see of you overwatered it, first, stick your finger in the soil. Is it wet? if so, gentley pull on the plants. (Key word is GENTLY). If they come out of the soil, you definitly overwatered it and that is a whole other arena (But, yes, it is salvagable), if that is the case, push them back into the soil until you let me know, and I will help you from there. The solution to that is one I learned the hard way, but my problem lily is still hanging in there. If the soil is damp or dry, you are ok. Are your leaves still green? if they are, you are in good shape for the most part.
If the tips start to brown, that is ok. The overall health of the plant is what we are looking at. do the leaves still have some body to them (do they kind of stand up or are they really droopy)?
Keep me posted, Like I said, it is salvagable either way, but we want to take the best way for the plant!

ok well, first of all, yes the soil is wet...the leaves are drooping and thats what really is scaring me. they feel like they are losing their architecture. like one of the leaves has a brown edge and the rest are just either folding around the edges or drooping excessively. do you have aol instant messenger, yahoo messenger, or msn messenger? it would be nice to have a more real time conversation to help save lily. if you have any of those, my screen names are:
yahoo: ring_on_the_world
aol: sandrock168
msn: chimaerafang@hotmail.com

okeys, i just went and tested it and it does pull out when you try and pull it out, so im taking it that that is not good.

ok, I will try to get on aol instant messenger tonight when I get home. I should be on around 10 or 10:30. If I miss you tonight, I'll send you my email address. in the meantime, get the plant into some dry soil mixed with perlite or something to make it drain better. and empty the water well at the bottom. then LIGHTLY water it.

If your peace lily remains limp several hours after watering the soil, then that is a good indication that the roots have rotted or are diseased. The prospects in that case are not good.

Thank you all. I just put lily in some new soil that is dry and very nutritious, and she looks like shes doing fine. ill keep you posted tho, and when i get one , ill put a link to her picture.

Ring, I am so happy she is doing better. Keep me posted. also, you can email me a picture when you get one, even if you don't get it uploaded! Have a great day.

well, shes looking better
the leaves are still kinda weak, tho. perhaps i should like give it one of those mriacle gro sticks or something?

Ring,

Avoid any fertilizer at this time. Fertilizer is intended for use on helathy plants that are growing vigorously. It is not medicine. It tends to aggravate plants that are trying to recover.

In addition, fertilizer sticks tend to create hot spots in the soil where they are placed. It is better to use a liquid fertilizer that you can dilute and spread over the entire rootball.

so i should put a small amount of liquid fertilizer in?

Ring..... NO fertilizer at this time.....especially if you added good potting soil like Miracle Grow! Will Creed stated it would aggrevate the plant at this point since it is trying to make a recovery. Wait!!!!

thank you all so much. and lily thanks you, too.

Hey don't know if this was said or posted already but , When you bring a plant home to a new enviroment you should let it acclamate first , and if you think it needs a repot only go 2 inches up from previous pot ..

I was given a peace lilly with root rot..

What I found to be beneficial is , to examine the roots that seem healthy and plant it in fresh soil according to the size of the rootball , meaning in a case like this you want to be able to water the plant , but also you do not want excess water due to excess soil hanging around for very long . Hold off on fertilizer untill it has recouped its proper root system and you will know this by strong leaf growth ..
If done properly the plant has a good chance of recouping it's root system ..

Peace lilly's do very well in eastern sun , I find if I place them in north exposure they do not flower as profusely .

Hope this helps