There is a range of houseplants that have lush, green leaves but rarely offer a flower. One exception is the peace lily, which delivers beautiful foliage and abundant white blooms.
Being one of the most popular indoor plants, peace lilies are undemanding and will excel indoors.
Although many experts recommend providing peace lilies with their basic needs before sitting back and enjoying the rewards, sometimes these houseplants need a little encouragement to bloom.
Taking to the Gardening UK Facebook page, one woman had been trying to get her peace lily to bloom for two years but has only now found success.
Rotating a picture of her peace lily with white flowers, Jean Hunter wrote: “Finally, after two years of trying, my Peace Lily is flowering beautifully.
“Thanks to whoever advised me to cut down the leaves. Result, you should try it if your peace lily isn’t blooming and you’ve tried everything else.
“It takes only takes around 20 seconds and you’re done. I couldn’t believe my eyes and I gave up hope it would ever flower.”
Group members agreed with this tip and also found success when testing it out on their peace lilies.
Emma Knight said: “Mine love a good snip. They have at least six flowers all the time.”
Rotating a picture of her peace lily with white flowers, Jean Hunter wrote: “Finally, after two years of trying, my peace lily is flowering beautifully.
Marco Sandro explained: “Peace lilies will focus on flowering more if you cut the new shoots.
“The new shoots take most of the energy, but if you cut them out it’ll redirect its energy into flowers etc rather than shoots. Good luck.”
When asked how many leaves she removed, Jean replied: “Around six or seven, just to give it enough light and avoid it being too bushy. I also left one or two inches off the base.”
Not only will pruning the plant encourage flowering, but it also helps to keep peace lilies in check.
Not everyone wants a giant, sprawling houseplant. Sometimes you’d rather limit the peace lily to a tidy tabletop size. Pruning the leaves can help with that.
In terms of when to prune peace lilies, this can be done at any time as they don’t have a true winter dormancy cycle the way other plants do.
