Spathiphyllum, spath, Peace Lilly, dungeon plant!

It's the original 70s house plant. In recent times it has become popular with the emergence of the variegated foliage forms.

Why is this plant so popular?

Lush green foliage. There are a few forms of spathes. Short and fat lush green leaves, long and skinny lush green leaves, big and fat lush green leaves and Giganotosaurus lush green leaves. There is also a form that has crinkly green and white variegated leaves and just a flat glossy variegated leaf. There is also a silver leafed form.

All have beautiful white flowers. Some flowers sit high out of the foliage and some sit in amongst the foliage. Some are big and some are little.

This plant is an understory plant of the rainforest and basically requires very little light (hence its common name 'Dungeon Plant') and very low water. Which is probably why it was so popular.

The NASA Clean Air Study has also found that Spathiphyllum cleans indoor air of certain environmental contaminants, including benzene and formaldehyde.

Seriously how could one not want this indoors....

Oh well here we go .....

We worked out the flower wasn't good for our kids or animals to eat, so it slowly got banned from the homes of plant eating animal and children.

Then the tips of the leaves started turning brown and yellow making the plant look ugly and not Insta worthy.

Now that's because we all became afraid to give our plants a good drink. Spathiphyllums don't like it when you consistently give them little bits of water (shallow watering). I know you don't want to ruin Aunt Frans antique table with water running every where, so invest in a planter or take your Spathiphyllum to the sink to water it.

Spathiphyllums like a good long drink where water flows through the soil and out the bottom. Once a week is usually fine. If it doesn't last that long you need to reassess what your Spathiphyllum is planted in.

Spathiphyllums should be planted in a fantastic quality potting mix, remember they are understory plants living and surviving in decaying matter! The better the quality of potting soil, the less watering you'll need to do. I always use Searles Garden Products Platinum potting mix.

Spathiphyllums also don't like sitting in wet muddy yucky potting mix either. So make sure your soil is free draining.

Now the most annoying reason Spathiphyllums got a bad rap is the flowers turning green ... why they do that?

Well it is believed it's due to two major issues. From my research they are unsure which is main reason. I have started a few experiments at Trevallan.

Firstly Spathiphyllums prefer low light (remember understory plant) too much light makes the chemicals in the plants brain go all funny and it produces the green flower.

Secondly Spathiphyllums like certain nutrients. Green flowers can be caused by a chemical imbalance caused by under or over fertilisation. Too much or too little of what they are still unsure. To this end I have used Bio Trace, a complete trace element liquid feed on half of my green flowering Spathiphyllums and I have given the others sulphate of potash. I have found the use of potash in August gives me great white flowers at Christmas.

I truly love this easy to care for plant