Beginner Gardening: Peace Lily - What Am I Doing Wrong?, 0 by inamorata

inamorata wrote:
Hello everyone. I'm new here, and looking for some desperately needed advice.

I'm having a terrible problem with my Peace Lily. I got it last August, and for several months, it was absolutely beautiful and thriving. Not so anymore... the leaves are constantly browning and dying off. It continues to put on new leaves, but for every new leaf it puts on, another dies off. It looks generally wilted all the time, even though I give it the same amount of water. Admittedly, there *are* times when I forget to do it on schedule, and I don't always remember to mist it, either. I don't think it's going to survive, so I haven't taken as good a care of it these past couple of months or so.

I had it in a 12" pot for a very long time, but once the leaves started dying, I cut them off. I wasn't sure if I should or not, but I reasoned that a dying leaf was taking away from the healthy parts of the plant, and it was best to get rid of them. After a while, the plant started looking pretty scrawny, and I decided to move it into a 10" pot. I think I did a really bad thing when I repotted it, though. The roots were visible everywhere (side to side, and across the bottom) and I trimmed them back a bit. *cringes* It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I think it must have been a terrible mistake?

Also, I think it was too close to the heater in the wintertime. I kept it near (not directly in front of) a north window, so it could get a bit of the morning sun, and didn't think about the fact that it was just a few feet away from the gas heater. (Pretty sure that's where all my troubles began. It started looking bad around January.)

Right now, I have several new, rolled-up leaves that are either just starting to unfurl, or looking as they never *will* unfurl. A couple of the unfurled leaves are already yellowed and drooping. (The others are upright.) When leaves do open up, they are all much smaller than what I had last year. I'd say they are half the size, if not less, than the size it's leaves used to be back then.

I don't know what to do to bring it back to life. Can anyone point me in the right direction, please? Or is it a lost cause? Should I be fertilizing it? (I never have done that.)

This message was edited Jun 24, 2008 7:21 AM