Why does my peace lily have green flowers?
On a peace lily the white spathe, the sail-like part that most people call the flower, is green. It either opens white and changes to green over several weeks, or it opens pale green and stays that way, sometimes smaller than the ones before it.
The most likely cause is simple ageing. The spathe is a modified leaf, and as it matures it takes up chlorophyll. The Royal Horticultural Society describes white spathes fading to green as part of the normal cycle, and the entry gives normal ageing as the first cause. A spathe that opened white and has slowly turned green over a few weeks is doing what its species does, and nothing is wrong with the plant.
To confirm it in a minute, watch a single spathe from the day it opens. White first and green weeks later means ageing. Green from the first day, on every new stalk, points to the plant's conditions. Then check the leaves. Very large, soft, dark green leaves on a plant that has been fed regularly with a general feed suggest too much nitrogen, and the entry asks for a weak feed every two weeks in spring and summer, monthly in autumn and none in winter.
Light is the other cause to rule out. Small, pale or greenish flowers on a plant in a dim spot, with fewer blooms than last year, mean it does not have the light to finish them. The entry puts its best position in medium, indirect light.
Spathes already open will not change, so the recovery shows in the next flush, not in the flowers in front of you. A mature plant flowers in spring and again in late summer of its own hemisphere, so allow for the better flowers to arrive in the next round, a season or so away.
What this plant wants
| Light | Medium light |
|---|---|
| Water, growing season | Every 5 days |
| Water, winter | Every 8 days |
| Humidity | High |
| Temperature | 15 to 27 °C |
| Grows in winter | No |
The fix
Cut spent flowers at the base; ease off feeding if new flowers open green.
Read on
- Flowers coming out green
- The same sign on any plant, with the causes in the order they are likely.
- Peace lily care
- Light, water, feeding, repotting and the rest of the entry.
- Check it in the diagnoser
- Opens with the plant, the part and the sign already chosen.
Checked against
The figures and the advice on this page were checked against the sources below, and where they disagree the page says so.