I’m wondering if I should keep trying to revive this peace lily or let it go. Its leaves are darkening and yellowing, and the yellow water in its water dish is grossing me out. I’m assuming it was overwatered and root rot is the cause of the yellowing. Any chance of saving it or should I throw it out? I can’t leave it outside because there are outdoor cats who live in my yard and I’m afraid it’s poisonous to them.
This plant can be rejuvenated but it should not be over or under watered in the short term.
See this answer for more detail
Did things go well with your Peace Lilly?
I had a Peace Lilly that I was struggling to save for months after she flowered the first time ever. I regarded my work as intensive care unit at that time as leaf after leaf died. Some went brown at the ends, some went black, whilst others seem to continue on for some time. After the flowing I kept some seeds, but I couldn't find where I put them. I know it was somewhere dark and cool. But sadness disappointed and annoyance at displacing her seeds, just left me with an almost dead Peace Lilly and evenutally, as the last remaning leaf gave up, she was for all intents and purposes dead. That last leaf lived a long time and I think she was trying but it just wasn't working out.
Anyway, I turned to the pot with the last straggling piece of dead Peace Lilly and thought about what I should do. A friend said repot it in a smaller pot. But she was dead so I was not sure what I was repotting. I didn't get roound to that and Peace Lilly sat dead for about another ten days when I went to it to throw her out and couldn't believe my eyes. Right in the middle of the pot was this tiny new green shoot. Not a leaf but the beginnings of a plant. I can't figure that out at all. I wonder if anyone where knows the answer. Needless to say don't be in total despair if something terrible happens. It seems there is a way back from this if you are patient and just leave things as they are for a while. I didn't remove the last dead leaf. I don't know if it makes any difference. But just come back to the pot once and week. Check on the soil and as if the plant was alive just make it moist enough; not a full watering. Then wait. Just keep waiting. This was spring so it could make a difference if your Lilly konks out in winter. But I'd say do the same things. Just make sure there is a high intensity of light for the most time possible. This is of course converse to the normal advice about light. The normal advice is normally correct because the plant has leaves and grew accustomed to growing in shady conditions but shady was not actually dull, so keep that aspect in mind because the plant may be programmed to have another go when 'spring' arrives. Don't appy any feed until you see a shoot. Leave everything status quo as much as possible.
My Peace Lilly could easily have been binned because she'd lived all of the ten years most experts say is their lifetime, so in one way I was in acceptance of the situation. Not easily so though, as you read! I hope your Lilly got well again. If the plant is a gift it can eb especially saddening when they die. But don't conclude that death is the end. Its a matter of what you define as death. One person told me that if the DNA and another complicated sounding thing are in tact and not rotted they may have the necessary motility.
I hope I have provided some help or useful insight here from my own (unique?) experience. Peace Lillies don't always die. Often they just go to sleep.
