The Marvelous Spathiphyllum

    

The Marvelous Spathiphyllum

I bet you thought  I would never get around to talking about specific plants.   Well, here is the first.

The spathiphyllum also know as the "Peace Lily" is one of my favorite beginner plant.  It needs little care, will do well in low light, and will even tell you when it is thirsty.

To begin, the spathiphyllum comes in a multitude of sizes.  The one pictured in this blog is a small plant but it will also come in a petite that will only grow to a heigth of six to nine inches.  It is a great table plant and does very well under a lamp.  In contrast, you can also find a full size spathiphyllum that will grow to almost four feet and needs a very large pot.  The larger example can have leaves that can measure up to twelve inches across and have blooms the size of a woman's hand.  These spathiphyllum's are a favorite office plant because they will do well in the low artificial light found there.

Now that you know what it looks like, let's talk about the care of this beauty.  The spathiphyllum is considered a low light plant because it will live quite well in this environment.  But, if you really like the beautifully simple flowers it will bloom better in a medium light.  The smaller varieties may want even a little more.  Low light is measured by candle watt.  The easiest rule of thumb is that in a south window you can say that high light is within two feet of the window.  Medium light is within four feet and low light is within six feet of the window.  Subtract two feet from these measurements for an eastern or western window and four feet from a northern window.  If you are not placing a plant in the correct light then you will need to add artificial light. 

It takes a lot of work for a plant to create flowers so make sure you fertilize it at least once a month during the summer which is when it would naturally bloom.  You can cut back in the winter unless you are actually growing your plant in artificial light and it does not know when to go into a dormant period.  I would advise that you do skip at least one to two months to force dormancy just for the health of the plant.

Remember me telling you that the spathiphyllum will tell you when it is thirsty.  Well, it will.  The spathiphyllum is one of the few plants that will actually lay down almost flat when you have allowed it to dry out too much.  Water it and it will stand back up like nothing happened.  Not that you should allow this to happen too often.  The strain on the plant will hold it back and may eventually be its demise. 

That's it for today.  Hope this blog was helpful.  Remember to write me if you have any questions on the spathiphyllum or any other of your problem plants.