Find Your Ask the Expert: I recently acquired a peace lily from my brother’s funeral. I would like to know how to prone the plant once a flower blossom dies. I want to keep the plant looking nice. Your care instructions doesn’t say where to cut the flower off at. Or do I just leave it alone and let the stem die too and then pull stem and all out at once. Thank you. Grace
Plant Expert Reply:
You can leave the stalk and let it die-back on its own, but that makes the plant unsightly. Follow the stalk to the base of the plant and snip it off. Removing the spent flowers will keep the plant attractive. To keep the plant healthy remove the florists wrapping and make sure it is a pot that will allow the plant to drain. Then keep the plant moist but not soggy.
Now I’m confused. What the original post was describing is what I see too. The flower comes out of a tube on the leaf. Is the “base of the plant” at the base, or where it comes out of the leaf tube? The brown blooms do pull right out of the tube, and seem to go the full length, but is that the right way to do it? I can split the tube on the leaf to the base and cut it, but that seems very invasive. Which way is better?
Or by stalk, does that include the whole leaf too?
Jared,
The base of the plant is where it comes out of the ground. So, follow the stalk until you reach the bottom of the plant where it comes out of the ground and snip off there.
My peace Lilly is growing beautifully. The flowers last a long time and eventually the inner white stalk (what would be its proper name?) that is in the flower starts to drop a white powder. I decided to cut off that “white stalk” to stop the mess but still enjoy the flower. Did I damage the plant in any way. I don’t see that I did, but I do have sap dripping from the cut area in the flower. I actually cut the stalks off 2’other blooms that have been in flower a while already. They are not dripping sap.
Another question: should I be thinning the plant, by cutting off small leaves (and stalks) that for some reason did not lengthen before they grew fully and are stunted leaves somewhere in the “underbrush”?
Hi B,
The part that you are referring to is called the spadix and is actually the flower of the peace lily. The outer white part that is often confused with the flower is actually called the spathe. The white powder you saw was most likely pollen. As far as the sap that is dripping from the cut, I’m unsure what this is, but my guess would be that it is the plant trying to naturally heal itself and it is producing more than you are used to because the bloom wasn’t done maturing. As for the small leaves you are referring to, I would leave them alone unless they are damaged.