A variegated peace lily can bring a unique beauty to your home with stunning foliage and patterns. Like any peace lily, a variegated peace lily can be simple to care for, a great air-cleanser, and produce gorgeous flowers year-round.
But what is a variegated peace lily? Are there many varieties of these plants, and how can you get your hands on them? Most importantly, do they have any particular needs, and how should you best care for them? Keep reading to find out!
What Is A Variegated Peace Lily?
Variegation is a term that describes the variation in color on a plant’s leaves, stems, or fruit. For example, a variegated peace lily has the same large, broad leaves as a regular peace lily, but these leaves have colored patches or patterns, giving the plant a more exotic and vibrant look.
Variegated peace lilies are relatively common across the rainforests. However, they are often difficult to find in commercial shops.
Popular Variegated Peace Lily Varieties
So, now that you know what a variegated peace lily is, you may be wondering if they possess specific patterns or colors. How many varieties of variegated peace lily are there, and how do they differ from each other? Let’s find out!
Domino
A popular variety of peace lily, the domino peace lily generally has small white splashes of variegation across all its leaves, resembling tiny flecks of white paint. Each leaf is bright green, large, and slightly ruffled. The domino peace lily is also the only cultivated peace lily that is variegated, making this variety easier to find in your local shops.
Picasso
This variegated peace lily has large, mismatched white splotches across all its leaves, with the variegation sometimes consuming entire leaves. The white varies in intensity and size, sometimes showing pure white and other times as light-green. The variegation can extend down the plant’s stem, creating an eye-catching bright white look!
The Picasso variety of peace lily is very sought-after due to its intense coloring. However, this houseplant is quite rare!
White Stripe
This peace lily has a unique pattern of variegation: a single white stripe running down the center (also called the midrib) of each leaf. This variety is sometimes termed the “Silver Streak” as well. Unlike some other types of peace lily, the white stripe’s leaves have a matte finish. They’re also broad, full, and bright green.
The Littlest Jungle’s Video On Variegated Peace Lilies
The littlest jungle made a great video on her favorite varieties. You can check it out here:
Where Can You Buy Variegated Peace Lilies?
Variegated peace lilies can be challenging to find and may not be available at most commercial garden shops. However, there are other routes you can take to purchase one of these sought-after beauties.
Local plant nurseries
Local nurseries often have dedicated people cultivating rare or more challenging to raise plants. Luckily for you, the variegated peace lily falls into that category! So do yourself a favor and stop by local shops to ask about these lovely specimens. Even if they don’t have them, the employees at a local nursery may be able to give you a push in the right direction!
Facebook Marketplace
There are always plant enthusiasts in your area propagating and selling off the excess growth from their houseplants. So take a look around and see if you can find anyone in your area who may be selling their variegated peace lilies!
Etsy
Etsy is an excellent place for finding handmade goods of all kinds, including plants! Similar to Facebook Marketplace, a handful of Etsy sellers independently propagate and sell plants online. So if you’ve exhausted local options, this is definitely worth a shot!
Amazon
Home to an almost endless variety of products, Amazon even sells plants! Utilizing Amazon for your plant shopping lets you find more types of plants that you may not have access to locally, and variegated peace lilies are absolutely in the mix.
How Do You Take Care Of A Variegated Peace Lily?
Care of a variegated peace lily is similar to a regular peace lily, though there is one key difference: the amount of sunlight.
Variegated peace lilies often need more sunlight than their non-variegated counterparts due to the white patches in their leaves. Variegation in leaves means less chlorophyll, which means the variegated peace lily’s leaves are not as efficient at harvesting energy from sunlight.
So, how do you take care of a variegated peace lily? I’ll go over the most critical steps below!
Water
Since they are tropical plants native to the rainforest floor, peace lilies like to be moist. Therefore, you should make sure to water them regularly. Keep your peace lily in a pot with drainage holes to remove excess water, as overwatering can cause the roots of your peace lily to rot or become susceptible to infection. As a rule, your potting mix should be moist but not soggy. Allow the top to dry out occasionally.
If your peace lily is suddenly wilting dramatically, it’s probably thirsty! So please give it a healthy watering, and the leaves should spring back up in no time.
Light
You should keep your peace lily in a well-lit and filtered location, such as near a window. However, too much exposure to direct sunlight will burn them – they are native to the shady rainforest floor, after all! So keep your peace lily near a window that doesn’t get direct sunlight all day.
As mentioned above, a variegated peace lily may require more sunlight than a regular peace lily, so use your discretion. If your variegated peace lily’s leaves become bleached or dry, move it to a less sunny location.
Humidity
You should mist your plant’s leaves 2-3 times a week. Misting helps to create a humid environment for your peace lily, which provides optimal growth. Misting also helps remove dust that may form on your peace lily’s leaves – a layer of dust makes it more difficult for sunlight to reach the leaf surface, so this is a crucial step for variegated peace lilies!
Fertilizer
As is the case with most houseplants, your variegated peace lily will grow better and faster if you use fertilizer. You can fertilize your peace lily once every six weeks during the growing season for optimal growth. Standard house plant fertilizer will work, but be careful – the peace lily’s roots are very fragile, so you should dilute your fertilizer to half strength to protect the roots.
Final Words
Variegated peace lilies are stunning house plants with unique foliage and striking patterns. Popular and sought-after varieties include domino, picasso, and white stripe. They might be a bit harder to find than your run-of-the-mill plants, but check out local nurseries, Facebook Marketplace, Etsy, or Amazon.
To take care of your variegated variety, generally follow standard peace lily care. The main difference is they tend to prefer a bit more light!
