diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/petsc/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/petsc/package.py
index 7b89028820..8faeff76e5 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/petsc/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/petsc/package.py
@@ -205,6 +205,9 @@ def install(self, spec, prefix):
                    '--download-c2html=0',
                    '--download-sowing=0',
                    '--download-hwloc=0',
+                   'CFLAGS=%s' % ' '.join(spec.compiler_flags['cflags']),
+                   'FFLAGS=%s' % ' '.join(spec.compiler_flags['fflags']),
+                   'CXXFLAGS=%s' % ' '.join(spec.compiler_flags['cxxflags']),
                    'COPTFLAGS=',
                    'FOPTFLAGS=',
                    'CXXOPTFLAGS=']