Tag: Peace Lilies

The effect will not be fatal, but it’s worth avoiding. We pet parents don’t want our fur kids to suffer more than necessary, especially in preventable situations.

If you’re here because you witnessed your dog chomping on a peace lily plant I’ll cover ways to respond.

But if your dog is showing signs of distress, or you are not sure what plant they ingested please call your veterinarian immediately.

In this guide, we’ll discuss whether peace lilies are toxic to dogs and what to do if your pet nibbles on your plant.

Here’s what to expect:

Will Peace Lilies Poison My Dog?

It’s important to understand what we mean when we say a plant is “toxic” to animals.

The dictionary definition is “containing or being poisonous material, especially when capable of causing death or serious debilitation.”

But the term toxic can also be used to refer to reactions that aren’t as severe, and dogs chewing peace lilies are in that category.

Peace lilies contain insoluble calcium oxalate crystals which, when consumed can cause painful swelling and irritation of the mouth, throat, and stomach. This can result in gastrointestinal distress, particularly in young, old, or compromised animals.

In some cases, ingestion can cause swelling of the airways, resulting in your dog having difficulty breathing.

When a dog gnaws on any part of a Spathiphyllum, the most likely result will be painful swelling and irritation in the mouth.

Aside from being caught in the act, indications that the substances have affected your dog include excessive drooling, trouble swallowing, vomiting, and possibly whining while pawing at the mouth.

The damage might extend to painful indigestion if the canine swallows some of the foliage, stems, or roots.

Remember that if your dog swallowed part of the plant, it may take a couple of hours for the digestive pain to begin.

Now, will peace lily nibbling kill your dog? No, it won’t. But the more plant tissue your dog consumes, the worse the reaction is likely to be.

If that seems incorrect because you’ve heard lilies are extra toxic, you’re right, they are, particularly to cats.

But Spathiphyllum plants are not “true” lilies. These plants belong to the Araceae family which includes caladium and elephant’s ear.

However, quickly call the veterinarian if your pup has chewed a peace lily or you suspect they have.

There’s no substitute for expert advice, and of course, when you love your dog, you’ll want to err on the safe side.

Here are the numbers for two 24-hour hotlines:

ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center: 888-426-4435

Pet Poison Helpline®: 855-764-7661

Quick Response

If you witness your dog chomping on a piece of your peace lily, or you note one or more of the symptoms described above, and are confident that this is what’s happened, pause briefly for a deep breath.

Staying calm may help you remember the logical steps to take, and it should help your dog stay calm, too.

When you can determine which plant’s been chewed, quickly block all the household’s cats and dogs from the area.

It’s unlikely your pup will continue to bite a plant that leaves a ground-glass sensation in its mouth but don’t run the risk.

Double-check that you’re dealing with a peace lily, not another houseplant that may present different issues.

If it has a tag from the nursery with a picture, examine that first.

Don’t spend more than a minute or two on plant identification before calling your veterinarian for advice specific to your pet. They may ask you to bring a sample of the plant or to forward them a cell phone photo for reference.

Ingesting a few leaves could necessitate a vet visit for antihistamines, fluid replacement, and other treatments, but let your trusted caregiver advise.

If they’re not readily available, call one of the pet poison hotlines listed above.

To counter the immediate effects of oxalate crystals, rinse your dog’s mouth with fresh, clean water.

Provide an ice cube or frozen treats to soothe the swelling. If the symptoms immediately abate, you’re okay to go ahead and clean up any mess and work on salvaging the plant.

If your plant survived the ordeal, follow the tips below to reduce the risk of further incidents.

Preventive Measures

It’s our job as pet parents to fret about our kids, but you can take steps to prevent your dog from having a bad reaction to calcium oxalate crystals in these houseplants.

For a start, don’t bring any type of lily into a home with dogs without rigorously determining that it is a Spathiphyllum, not one of the more toxic varieties.

Sometimes a brand-new plant will become a chew toy for a canine not previously interested in gnawing houseplants. Be extra careful with new purchases or when bringing houseplants inside for the winter.

Place the plants where dogs can’t reach them. This isn’t as tough as it would be for other plant varieties since peace lilies only require medium, indirect light.

No need to set them on a sunny windowsill that an enterprising dog can hop onto.

You know your four-legged kids’ habits better than anyone, so think hard about ingenious ways they might decide to climb onto a counter or tall bookshelf to get to an appealing plant.

Our guide to growing peace lilies discusses how to take care of these easygoing houseplants.

In this guide, we’ll help you figure out how and when to prune your peace lily to deal with any brown tips, dead flowers, and ugly leaves. Here’s what we’re going to discuss:

When to Prune

You can remove dead, damaged, discolored, or diseased leaves at any time.

If you want to provide a little shape, do that in the spring. Try to avoid pruning when the plant is flowering because all its energy is focused on blooming.

Deadheading should, obviously, be done after the flowers have faded.

First things first, you’ll need to gather your tools.

To make your cuts, you’ll need a clean pair of clippers and a pair of scissors.

Both should be rinsed in soapy water and then wiped with isopropyl alcohol to remove any dirt and harmful pathogens hanging out on the metal that could spread nasty diseases.

By doing some trimming, we’re trying to make our plant healthier, not sick.

Removing Dead Leaves

When a leaf dies, it needs to be removed, otherwise It will just be a drain on the plant’s energy.

You want to remove the leaf as close to the soil as possible, otherwise you’ll leave an unsightly stump behind.

Every now and then, lift up the lower leaves and examine the base of the plant.

Sometimes, you’ll find small dead leaves or those that are turning yellow or brown. These should be removed.

To do this, take your clippers or scissors and make a cut as close as you can to the nearest main stem or to the soil, if the leaf doesn’t attach to a stem.

Sometimes, completely brown and shriveled leaves can simply be pulled away from the plant.

Trimming Brown Leaf Tips

Peace lily leaves turn brown at the tips with the drop of a hat. Too much or too little water, too little humidity, too much sunlight, overfeeding, or extremes in temperature can all cause browning leaf tips.

Once they turn brown, they won’t regain their green color, so it’s best to just cut them off to improve the appearance of the plant.

To cut the leaf tip, take your clean scissors and trim off the brown section at an angle on each side so that you recreate the pointed tip. That way, the leaf will blend in with its neighbors.

You can cut the brown part off with one flat cut, but it will be noticeable among the other leaves, which is why you want to aim to keep the tips pointed.

When you prune the leaves themselves rather than the stems, it’s important that you’re careful to use extremely sharp tools. Dull tools will crush the leaves and you’ll be left with edges that turn brown.

For more information on why the leaves turn brown at the tips and how to prevent or deal with it, visit our guide.

Deadheading

After the flowers fade, they won’t come back. You’ll want to remove that ugly brown spathe and spadix.

To remove this, follow the flower stem down to the base and carefully cut it away.

The stem might still be green even though the spent flower is brown. It doesn’t matter, the stem will eventually turn brown as well, so go ahead and cut it off.

Shaping Your Plant

A healthy peace lily will usually maintain a fairly attractive shape all on its own, but a period of insufficient sun might cause sparse growth, or simply forgetting to rotate your plant might make the foliage lush on one side and thin on the other.

Whatever the cause, if you want to provide your plant with some shape, use your clippers or scissors to take away any bent leaves or unattractive growth.

Feel free to snip away a few leaves from the center of the plant to thin it out a bit.

If one side is more dense than the other, take out some of the leaves here and there to thin it out, creating a more even shape.

They consistently start drooping when the soil is dry. After watering, the plants bounce right back, and I know I’m not overwatering, which is a bad habit of mine.

Underwatering isn’t the only reason a peace lily may start to droop. There are several common causes that can turn your perky little plant into a sad, droopy mess.

Here are the seven top reasons we are going to cover:

All of the causes on this list can usually be avoided by giving the plant the appropriate care.

Visit our guide to growing Spathiphyllum to review the details on watering, light exposure, temperature preference, and other care requirements.

1. Cold Temperatures

Unless you keep your peace lily outside part of the year, you probably won’t run into this cause too often.

The exception is if you have single-pane windows and you live in a region with frigid winters. It can become cold enough to stress or stun your peace lily if you keep it next to the window.

Temperatures below 50°F should be avoided, but that doesn’t mean if your house is a toasty 70°F that your plant is safe.

If it’s 20°F outside, and you have a single-pane window, the leaves closest to the glass could be exposed to temperatures well below 50°F.

Just be mindful of plants situated near windows or exterior doors. They could be much colder than you realize.

2. Disease

There are only a few diseases that you need to watch for on peace lilies, and of these, root rot is the disease that causes wilting leaves.

There are two kinds of root rot: Cylindrocladium (caused by Cylindrocladium spathiphylli) and Pythium (caused by Pythium spp.) root rot.

Both cause wilting and yellowing foliage, and if you were to unpot the plant, you’d see black, mushy, dying roots.

Root rot is generally caused by overwatering or poorly draining soil, and both can be rectified by repotting in fresh soil and treating with a fungicide.

To learn more, visit our guide to peace lily diseases.

3. Not Enough Water

As we mentioned before, a lack of water is a common cause of wilting. In fact, I’d venture a guess that it’s one of the most common reasons.

Thankfully, if you add water your plant will perk back up and will recover with no damage.

Mine doesn’t even have brown leaf tips from repeatedly being allowed to dry out. But you need to catch it just as it’s drying out.

If you wait too long, as the roots really dehydrate, you will start to see brown leaf tips.

Spathiphyllum species like the soil to be moist but never wet. Next time you wring out a sponge really well, touch it and become familiar with the texture.

That’s the moisture level that you’re aiming for in the soil.

Visit our guide to watering peace lilies for more information.

4. Overwatering

We’ve said that not enough water causes wilting, and now we’re telling you that too much can cause the same issue? It’s true, though.

I’ve known several people who noticed their plant was drooping, so they added more and more water. Before they knew it, root rot had set in.

If your plant is wilting, don’t assume it needs more water. Go and stick your finger in the soil as deep as you can. The soil can be moist, but it shouldn’t be wet or soggy.

It helps to feel as deep as you can because sometimes the soil will become waterlogged deeper down in the pot but will feel appropriately moist near the top.

If you feel wetness at the bottom, check out the drainage holes. Are they clogged? If you can, stick a chopstick or something in there an inch or so and wiggle it around to loosen up the soil.

Do you have a layer of rocks in the bottom of your pot? Get it out of there. This is a gardening myth that won’t die.

A layer of rocks or broken crockery won’t improve drainage. It actually raises the level at which water pools, which means that the moisture is sitting closer to the roots than it would otherwise.

Finally, be mindful not to water until the top inch of the soil has dried out. The rest of the soil should feel moist but not wet.

If you can ball up a little bit of soil in your hand, and it stays together rather than crumbling apart, it’s too wet.

5. Pests

Part of what makes them so easy to raise is that Spathiphyllum species aren’t particularly bothered by pests. But just because something is uncommon doesn’t mean that it’s impossible.

A peace lily that’s infested by mealybugs, scale, or spider mites might wilt. These pests all suck the sap of the stems and leaves, causing yellow stippling and leaf wilting.

If you examine your plant closely, you’ll see the insects themselves. Aphids are tiny oval pests in green, yellow, or brown.

Scale look like flat bumps underneath the leaves or along the stems near leaf nodes. Mealybugs might be mistaken for a disease. They’re gray or white and fuzzy, kind of like fungus.

Once you address the infestation, the leaves should perk back up. But if they are discolored, they won’t return to their original hue, so you should snip them off.

6. Rootbound Plant

This goes hand in hand with underwatering. If your peace lily has outgrown its current container and the roots are all bound up, the plant will rapidly dry out.

Typically, you’ll know when your houseplant becomes rootbound because you will see roots growing out of the drainage holes or up out of the surface of the soil.

But even if you don’t see this happening, dig down a little and check the roots if the foliage is drooping and you’ve determined it isn’t a watering issue. The roots will feel tight and packed rather than loose, with soil in between.

If the plant is rootbound, you’ll either need to divide it or move it into a larger container.

Either way, remove the plant from the container, brush away the soil, and loosen up the roots. Cut away any roots that are black, broken, or mushy.

If you want to divide it, cut through the roots and include at least a few stems. Pot up divisions in new containers and replace the original section in the first container.

To upgrade to a larger container, after loosening the roots, place the plant in the new pot and fill in around the roots with fresh potting soil.

7. Too Much Light

Peace lilies don’t like a lot of direct sunlight. Maybe a little bit in the early morning, but if you offer them direct light in the afternoon, you might find your plant drooping.

Sometimes, you can remedy this by adding water to the soil, but a better idea is to move the houseplant to a darker location.

When this is the cause of wilting, you’ll probably also see some browning or yellowing of the leaves. 

Remember that these plants do best with bright, indirect light. The only direct light they can tolerate is early morning light, which is less harsh than afternoon light.