🪴 This Week In Houseplants 🪴
The Great Peace Lily Scam
I mean, it’s not really a scam I suppose. The growers are just giving us what we want.
What am I talking about?
Well.
Ever bought a peace lily and it just wouldn’t flower? And you tried EVERYTHING?
You might tell yourself this species perhaps doesn’t flower, or maybe it’s too young. Except…it was definitely in bloom when you bought it. Hmm.
What you didn’t consider is that your peace lily was on DRUGS when you bought it.
Yup, it turns out that baby peace lilies are doused with gibberellic acid when they’re teeny tiny, to make them bloom before they’re really ready.
I was outraged when I first heard this - it made me think of the whole Pink Congo scandal and the even more dubious practice of forcing variegation with ethanol.
But actually, it makes sense to give people what they want.
99% of people who buy peace lilies buy them as decor items. A cheap alternative to cut flowers that are WAY better for the environment? Awesome.
(The environmental impact of cut flowers is staggering by the way).
The flowers die off, but peace lily foliage is pretty stunning, so we don’t really think about the flowers until they pop up three years later: ‘Incredible! I forgot they did that!’
But then there are a few people who buy peace lilies specifically for the flowers. They buy the plant, and the flowers die after a couple of months so they patiently wait until the following spring/autumn for them to rebloom BUT IT TAKES TWO YEARS. Despite perfect care/conditions.
And that is because peace lilies are given hormones to encourage them to flower.
It kinda seems like a sketchy practice because it forces peace lilies to waste their energy on flowers when they should be using it for growing.
However, now that I’m older and wiser I’m well aware of the fact that you cannot force a peace lily to do ANYTHING it doesn’t want to. If adding gibberellic acid to peace lilies harmed them then growers would stop doing it.
A question that a lot of people have posed to me ‘how do you get peace lilies to flower?’. The answer to this also assures us that you can’t force peace lilies to flower - you can just provide them with what they need and…hope.
Don’t go out and buy gibberellic and hope it’ll work as an alternative to good care and conditions. It likely won’t.
How to get peace lilies to flower
There is no big secret here. They don’t need a drop in temperature or a spell of total darkness or anything. Here’s what they need:
Light
Water
Get the light right. Low-intensity (not to be confused with low light) light aaaaall day. A nice north-facing window is good. Mine’s loving life about six feet away from a south-facing window.
Don’t let it dry out too much. Don’t water it so much it’s standing in mud.
Humidity helps keep the flowers looking good for longer, but doesn’t really affect the flowering process. Temperature is a factor, but mine bloomed in 15˚C room so I wouldn’t worry too much about that - too hot is likely as much of an issue as too cold.
Repotting and fertilising *might* have a little impact, but peace lilies love to be snug in their pot (I only repot when I run out of room for new plantlets on the top) so only repot if necessary.
Fertiliser is great for general health but I didn’t fertilise a peace lily at all for two years (on purpose, I wasn’t just being mean) and it bloomed away happily.
You don’t need to do anything special to get peace lilies to bloom. Just look after it well and it’ll bloom.
If it’s growing leaves but no flowers it’s *usually* a light issue.
So what does this have to do with growers giving their plants synthetic gibberellic acid to force them to flower?
Wellll…you can’t force a peace lily to flower. Gibberellic acid is naturally found in peace lilies but doesn’t show up until the plant is ready to flower. Wild peace lilies have a MUCH harder life than ones in captivity.
They have to deal with flooding, being trodden on, and ending up as someone’s supper. They need to focus on developing long, strong roots, and getting big enough to get a decent amount of light. They do not have the TIME to flower until they’re older.
Captive peace lilies don’t really need to worry about all that. They’re given the gibberellic acid and put in lovely conditions and flower because they want to.
If they were given the acid and thrown in the cupboard under the stairs a la Harry Potter they wouldn’t have the energy to flower, drugs or no drugs.
It’s not like the growers are forcing them to flower. They’re just giving them the option.*
Gibberellic acid doesn’t = flowers.
Giberellic acid + great light + perfectly hydrated roots + clean leaves MIGHT = flowers.
*I mean, if they don’t flower they’re probably thrown away, but let’s not tell them that.
More information on getting peace lilies to bloom here.
More stuff
Looking to add to your houseplant collection but not sure what’s out there? Watch this video from the Jungle Haven. There are some STUNNERS on her list.
I love this article on houseplants that reduce dust. I clicked through, knowing full well that houseplants don’t reduce dust but I wanted to see how they’d spin it. They claim that the dust is trapped on the plant’s leaves. I mean, yeah. But that isn’t reducing the dust. It’s just…getting dusty, like every other surface in my home does.
There’s also a nice bit of bollocks about absorbing moisture and improving air quality.
Houseplants are many things, but they’re not useful. You can’t even eat most of them.
Look at the size of this Manjula Pothos - it’s a video, but you can see it in the thumbnail. What a beast!
How to deflask* Monstera Thai Constellation - deflasking is taking a baby tissue culture plant out of its sterile flask. A couple of years ago we weren’t privy to the inner workings of tissue culture labs, but now a lot of them sell teeeeny babies still in their flasks for much cheaper than a standard plant. People buy them because the plants are CHEAP but accidentally kill them by not deflasking properly. Here’s a video from TechPlant that goes through the process.
By the way, there are a lot of people badmouthing TC on Facebook groups, but I assure you, quality depends on the plant’s genes, TC or not. You can get a bad plant from anywhere.
TC is awesome for making plants more accessible and floods the market, making poaching less lucrative.
That’s it from me for this week! Have an awesome weekend 😊
*Ghastly word. I do not like it. Can we brainstorm alternatives please?
I have a peace lily that has a new flower peaking out...and this is the third time it is flowering since I bought it Nov 2021! I’ve been super lucky! It is in the shower in our bathroom - no real access to the window, but I have a regular LED light that shines on it about 14 hours a day, and it seems to keep it happy.