Cart

Close

Romano Peace Lily Complete Care Guide (Spathiphyllum Walisii Romano)

Bigger than the smaller leafed standard Peace Lily, but not an overboard as the giant Sensation Peace Lily, the newer Romano Spathiphyllum Walisii has both the size and the leaves to be a statement plant - yet is SO easy care it feels like cheating!

BIG foliage + deep, dark green leaves + naturally extra glossy + beautiful, crisp white flowers + low maintenance? Phew. That's a lot of 'yes please' all in one plant. Add those together and you get a gorgeous addition to any indoor houseplant collection. We love that the Romano is known to be a higher flower producer too compared to a typical Peace Lily.

Get one for yourself for instant jungle with those big leaves - or these guys make superb gifts too. Something more special to give than the standard little Peace Lily, but just as easy care. 

We give this handsome guy a coveted 1 out of 5 LTLC Rating. Oh, and did we mention they're NASA approved? The Peace Lily made it in to NASA's Top 10 Best Air Cleaning Plants in the world! Find out everything you need to know below 

Romano Peace Lily Spathiphyllum

 

Light, temperature & humidity

These girls are super chill when it comes to light. They'll tolerate down to low light levels, but prefer medium light. Direct sunlight is best avoided so you don't risk burning those gorgeous glossy leaves. Too bright isn't good either.

I find really bright light can make the leaves become pale and the tips crispy. My Peace Lily collection thrive at the medium end of bright light. If you haven't had any flowers for a while, and it's growing season, change to a lower-nitrogen fertiliser that puts your plants energy towards flowers not foliage - like Dyna-Gro Grow 7-9-5 - and try a new position with a little more light and flowers normally follow. In the perfect spot your lily can even flower all year-round.

My son has his own jungle of Peace Lily's in his bedroom that handle brighter light, very warm temperatures, and a pretty neglectful watering schedule - yet somehow still look fantastic. These are great plants for kids who want their own because they tell you SO dramatically when they need water and reward kids with new leaves and flowers regularly.

These girls prefer a temperature range of about 18 to 30 degrees but can tolerate cooler in winter if the rest of her conditions are all good. They really enjoy higher humidity but it's not a must. Our natural humidity in NZ is pretty good, but if you live in a drier area, or use an HRV or DVS system, you might like to add a pebble tray underneath, regularly mist those giant leaves, or get a humidifer. Misting their leaves is so enjoyable with them being so massive and glossy.

This is my own Romano, below, with a new flowers about to unfurl...

 

Romano Peace Lily getting ready to flower

 

Soil

The Peace Lily is a really good candidate for hydro or semi-hydro. Grown in soil, a mix of mainly potting mix with something free draining like perlite will do the job. We go for about 3/4 potting mix and 1/4 perlite. These guys are fast growers in the right conditions, so yearly repotting in spring is pretty standard (check for roots coming through the bottom of the pot). 


Water

It's very easy to know when to water a peace lily. Leave it too long and they will dramatically droop and look very forlorn until you water them. Then like magic they recover and are loving life again.

These guys are so forgiving of neglect. Ideally happier maintained evenly moist. We water our gang just when they start to droop just slightly, no need to even check the soil. Typically a good drench once a week keeps them happy but it's easy to tell by their leaves.

If you've left it way too long and the leaves are crazy wilted, mist the leaves as well as giving the soil a good drench and they'll very likely pick back up as if nothing was wrong. Drama queens without the drama!


Is tap water okay?

We find our Peace Lily gang are more sensitive to tap water than our other jungle members, but if you don't have another water source, at least leave your tap water out overnight, or boil it for 10 minutes, let it cool then water. That helps remove the chlorine (although not the flouride), so if you can avoid tap water it's worth trying other sources.

If your girl has suffered a bit and needs a pick me up, feed a growth booster like Groconut mixed in your usual food on the regular (I use Dyna-Gro Foliage Pro as it's leaves not flowers that I'm going for, but you can also mix-feed Groconut with Dyna-Gro Grow for flower production).

If yours are in older soil which needs replenishing, remember to feed or you'll get stunted growth and fewer flowers. You might also spot things like yellowing leaves if your plant's having to rob nutrients from old leaves to direct them to new leaves to make up for what's missing in the soil.

Check out how fab the leaves look when the light hits those grooves. This is my Sensation below - see how the leaves aren't an inky green as the Romano (photo above)? - but both the Romano and Sensation have the same deeply ridged leaves compared to the standard Peace Lily...

 

light on giant peace lily leaf


Pet safe?

That's a no unfortunately, the Peace Lily is not pet safe. The foliage is safe to touch and prune, but if nibbled, chewed or swallowed, can irritate the lips, mouth and throat and potentially cause swelling, and digestive upsets. Play it safe and put those giant leaves out of reach of curious pets & kids. 


Peace Lily pro tips & problem solving

Brown, crispy or dry tips

This one's typically due to too much light or not enough humidity, however some report brown tips resulting from the chemicals in tap water. We normally try a change in light first. Easily fixed. 


No flowers (how to get your Peace Lily to flower again)

A common complaint we get asked about a lot. Two common causes. Not enough light, or food (not enough phosphorus or no food!).

If it's flowering season, a change in position should get them blooming again when combined with a plant food suitable for flowering (usually one lower in nitrogen and higher in phosphorus like Dyna-Gro Grow 7-9-5), however if you don't feed them at all, a lack of flowers can simply also be due to a lack of phosphorus. 

 

Green flowers

Green flowers are most often due excess light. Peace Lilies like medium light. Too much light, or too strong, and all that extra green pigment it's producing as a reaction to the stronger light can overpower the white and turn your blooms green. Move position and furture blooms should go back to their stunning crisp white.


Yellow leaves

If it's an older leaf and just one or two of them are going yellow, this is likely normal, and just a sign a leaf is at the end of its life. However Peace Lily aren't overly prone to yellowing of old leaves like some plants, so the other likely cause is a lack of nitrogen.

Nitrogen is a mobile nutrient. If you don't meet your plant's needs for nitrogen in the soil by feeding them, they'll steal it from older leaves and send it to newer leaves. 

I remove them when found so the plant can focus it's energy on healthy leaves and would highly recommend feeding a high-nitrogen foliage food like Dyna-Gro Foliage Pro.

However, if it's not an older leaf, and it's only on one side of the plant, and qute a few leaves on that side are going yellow, that's normally due to too much light (you'll know as that side will be the light source).

The other common cause is overwatering, in which case normally a bigger section or the entire plant will be yellowing. Check how wet the soil is and let him dry out.


Not growing

If it's growing season (spring and summer) and you do feed, but your chap's just not loving life, and you seem to have everything perfect, then check those huge leaves are not coated in dust.

They can be dust magnets. Pop your chap in the shower, give his leaves a wipe down with a soft damp cloth, or give him an extra generous misting. Another reason - if light and water are all good - is he may be root bound and overdue a repot.

Soil nutrient levels could also be up the wazoo, so you can also try an NPK fertiliser like Plant Runner to get the balance right and replenish what been used up.

 

LTLC Rating (Love That Leaf Care Rating)

The Peace Lily most definitely deserves the easiest Love That Leaf Care Rating of all, a solid 1 out of 5. Easy, peezy lemon squeezy. Our top pick for new plant collectors, to give as gifts, and for instant jungle impact without the hard work. Enjoy!

 

FREE shipping for orders $99+
Pay later Afterpay & ZIP
100% NZ In stock in NZ ready to ship
Fast delivery 1 to 3 days for most of NZ
FREE Shipping For all orders $99+ shipping NZ wide
Pay later Afterpay and ZIP available
100% NZ NZ owned. All in stock locally.
Guaranteed :) Anything wrong I'll put it right