How to Prune Peace Lily Plants - 2023 Essential Guide

Although the Peace Lily plant generally requires less care than other houseplants, it will eventually need attention to keep growing at its best. This manual will walk you through every step of when and how to prune peace lily plants at home.

Cut the stalk off of the peace lily as close to the ground as you can to prune it. Peace Lilies don't need regular trimming, but removing spent blossoms and leaves improves your plant's health.

Pruning Peace Lily Plants – the Essentials

Anytime a plant's leaves become damaged, dead, or dried out, prune the Peace Lily plant. Only once or twice a year during the active growing season, give them a pruning for shaping as needed. Prior to resuming any feeding or fertilizing, give the plant at least 4 weeks to recover from the pruning.

The Role of Pruning in General Plant Care

Cutting or removing plant material is referred to as pruning Peace Lily. The majority of common houseplants also benefit from it, but many trees and shrubs used in landscaping are required to have it. The peace lily falls under this.

Pruning indoor plants to get rid of any yellowing, browning, drooping, damaged, or dried-out leaves is a good idea. This stops disease from spreading throughout the entire plant. A lot of plants, including fruit trees and houseplants, require trimming to maintain their natural or preferred shape. Pruning can also be used in some situations to stop infestations or reduce pest damage.

A plant's growth can be controlled by limiting the amount of foliage or stems it has, ensuring that it concentrates more energy on the parts of the plant you want to keep. It's a crucial method for promoting blooming in plants like roses and preventing excessive foliage growth. Careful pruning can also encourage some indoor plants to bloom. In many plant species, pruning is a method used to gather material for propagation.

While most pruning is done for aesthetic reasons, it is still important for general plant care because it promotes healthy air circulation and deters disease.

What Are the Essential Tools for Pruning Peace Lily Plants?

Peace Lily plants feature a specific growing habit where they form many thin stems supporting individual leaves instead of one common stem. Because of this, you should find it fairly simple to prune this plant using just a good pair of sharp scissors.

Pointed pruning scissors give you the most control over cuts, so you don't snip more stems than you intended. Even if you decide to use regular household scissors, handle them with the same care you would any other pruning equipment. Solutions containing isopropyl alcohol or bleach prevent the spread of plant diseases between applications.

Many times, just using your fingertips or nails will be enough to pinch the new growth off. However, this can leave ragged edges and may become difficult on wiry older stems. If you want to give the plant a quick trim whenever it needs it, try keeping a pair of pruning or tiny nail scissors nearby.

Due to the mild toxicity of peace lily plants, it is advisable to wear gloves when pruning or trimming your plant.

How to Prune Peace Lily Plants

Unlike bonsai trees or plants like Lucky Bamboo, peace lily plants require less pruning to reach their mature shape. However, you should still consider pruning in some circumstances.

First, be ready to remove any wilting foliage and dried-out, brown flower stalks. After a while, this plant will naturally shed its leaves. It will only encourage disease, provide hiding places for common peace lily pests, and give the plant a scruffy appearance if you leave the dry and dead leaves mixed in. To keep the plant looking its best, clean it at least once every three months.

To make sure the strongest growth is kept, first remove weak, thin, and overcrowded foliage. In order to avoid crowding and prevent foliage from not fully unfolding, proper fertilization may require some thinning of the inner part of the plant. In addition to giving the plant a spiky appearance, furled and crowded leaves can promote disease by trapping moisture and debris.

When pruning, try not to remove more than 10% of the plant's foliage at once, excluding any diseased or damaged parts. While routinely pinching the plant back will stop overgrowth, minor pruning will encourage new growth.

Unless you're actively trying to shape a Peace Lily plant, avoid pruning it more than once or twice per year. If you cut the healthy plant tissue frequently, these plants won't respond well. Try to limit your pruning to just one or two times each year, at the height of growth.

Why You Should Prune a Peace Lily

You might wonder if your Peace Lily requires an annual trim if you're used to caring for flowering shrubs and trees. No, Spathiphyllum plants can grow and bloom just fine without any routine pruning, as the answer indicates.

The shears aren't always necessary, though, so that doesn't mean that they are never necessary. Even if they are not strictly necessary, some strategic pruning can be advantageous for your Peace Lily. Here are a few reasons you might want to snip back a Peace Lily:

1. To Encourage Growth. The older leaves and stems will eventually shrivel up and die as your plant grows new ones. While they're waiting to drop off, the plant will continue to spend some of its energy maintaining them. Once the leaves begin to wither, you can remove them so that your Peace Lily can focus its energy on creating new growth. This will produce a plant that is fuller and more active.
2. To Promote Flowering. Just as removing old stems encourages your Peace Lily to grow new ones, getting rid of old blossoms can encourage it to bloom once more. Although this isn't a foolproof strategy, in general you'll get more blooms if you're proactive about removing the spent ones.
3. in order to reduce clutter. If you don't get rid of the older leaves, eventually they'll fall into the pot and start to rot. Fungus gnats may be attracted to the soil if there is an excessive amount of rotting organic matter there. Although they typically don't harm your Peace Lily, they are undoubtedly inconvenient and unsightly.
4. To Keep it in Check. A huge, sprawling houseplant is not for everyone. There are times when you'd prefer to keep your Peace Lily to a neat tabletop size. Pruning the stems—and occasionally the roots—can assist with that.
5. to make it beautiful. It only makes sense to keep your plants as beautiful as possible since they are a part of your decor. Inconsistent stems, wilted flowers, and yellowing leaves are probably not what you had in mind for your Peace Lily. Don't hesitate to get rid of them.

How Do You Shape Peace Lily Plants?

Most Peace Lily plants don't require much sculpting. It's not always simple to promote where new growth will occur on these plants, unlike those that have vines or a single stem resembling a trunk. However, you can undoubtedly shape the plant from the edges or open up the plant's center for better air circulation.

It's acceptable to trim the plant's edges to give it the desired shape if you want your peace lily plant to have an upright or narrow appearance. Carefully remove only the outer leaves to reveal the more narrow inner foliage for a more vase-like appearance.

Consider dividing the plant if you want a more pronounced change in its size and shape. By doing this, you can start over with two to three more manageable, smaller plants that you may be able to keep pruned with ease.

Will Your Peace Lily Grow Back If You Cut It?

When you're planning your pruning, it's helpful to understand how your Peace Lily grows. A Spathiphyllum's stems don't resemble a tree's twigs and branches in any way. They resemble the delicate stalks that a leaf uses to attach to the branch where it grows.

The "stem" of a Underground is where Peace Lily is. These plants develop from rhizomes, which are large, tuber-like root systems. This enables them to spread out beneath the ground, allowing a single plant to cover a large area and sprout shoots in various locations. A Peace Lily can use this tactic to help with both survival and reproduction, giving it a chance to flourish in one place even if it perishes in another.

An individual stem that connects back to the rhizome bears each leaf and flower that a Peace Lily produces. Those stalks won't grow back when you trim them. New leaves will instead emerge from the ground.

On the other hand, even if you unintentionally clip way too much off with your clippers, your plant can recover from just the roots and rhizomes. Your Peace Lily should survive any amount of foliage loss so long as the underground portion of the plant endures and the growing environment is favorable. Nevertheless, don't anticipate a quick recovery because these plants grow slowly.

When to Prune a Peace Lily

Unlike plants from northern climates, peace lilies do not undergo a true winter dormancy cycle. Even though the length of the days tends to slow or stop growth, the leaves don't wither away. Because of this, there isn't a particular season that is ideal for pruning them. You can trim a peace lily whenever the need arises.

If you're removing old flowers, cut them as soon as the blooms start to wilt and sag. The "petal" of a When a peace lily begins to shrivel, its color will change from white to green, indicating that it is past its prime. Peace lilies are actually a type of leaf known as a spathe. Before the flower turns an unsightly brown, we advise removing it at that time.

In terms of the leaves, you can remove them as soon as they begin to turn yellow. You can also remove the brown leaf tips if they appear on your Peace Lily, but you should be aware that this could indicate a problem with the roots. They may be receiving excessive amounts of fertilizer, water, or are overly crowded or fertilized.

Can You Propagate a Peace Lily from a Cutting?

Some plants can reproduce from a snipped-off portion of their stalks, making every pruning an opportunity for new specimens. Sadly, Peace Lilies can't make this work.

A Spathiphyllum produces rhizomes rather than above-ground stems, so all of its growth nodes are tucked away inside its root system. None of the cells that can develop into new roots or foliage are present in the stems or leaves. A Peace Lily can only be reproduced through pollination or by severing its root mass.

Caring for Your Post-Pruned Peace Lily Plant

For the best recovery, fertilize Peace Lily plants about a month before pruning. Of course, such advanced planning is not always possible. Just because the plant hasn't received fertilizer in a while doesn't mean that necessary pruning should be postponed. Avoid applying fertilizer or overwatering the plant immediately after pruning it. Allow it to recover for a few days before watering your peace lily.

Peace Lily plants rarely wilt or show signs of shock from pruning alone, but it can happen if the plant was also divided. To prevent the plant from experiencing sun shock while it is healing, make sure to keep light levels moderate. Additionally, be cautious of chilly drafts. Direct sunlight and significant temperature changes are not good for peace lily plants at any time, but they are particularly susceptible to them after pruning. Within a few days after trimming, the plant should start growing normally again.

How to Prune Peace Lily Plants

– the Final Word

The vitality of your Peace Lily can be greatly increased by performing a straightforward task like pruning. By clearing away the dead weight, you'll encourage new growth to burst forth. Give it a try – we think you'll be happy with how your Peace Lily looks once it's freshly cleaned and trimmed.

You can choose to grow your Peace Lily plants in a wild, bushy state. Grab your scissors and try giving your plant a careful prune once or twice a year if you want a cleaner-looking houseplant.

If you're looking for your next peace lily plant, see our in-depth guide to the best plant shops delivering peace lilies nationwide.

FAQs

Should I Cut Back My Peace Lily?

Although Peace Lilies don't require routine trimming, getting rid of spent flowers and leaves will benefit the health of your plant. The entire stalk beneath a bloom should be cut off when it begins to wither.

Should I Cut the Brown Tips Off My Peace Lily?

If you don't like how the brown tips look, you can either remove the entire leaf and wait for new foliage to grow in its place, or you can remove just the tips. To get your peace lily back on track, let's look at the top five causes of brown leaves.

How Far Down Do I Cut My Peace Lilies?

In order for any lily to be able to rebuild itself and bloom the following summer, you should only cut off about half to two thirds of the stem (leaves). You need because each year, lily bulbs only produce one stem... When cutting lilies for vases, don't take out more than one-third of the leaves.