Bring the Outside In with Indoor Bamboo Plants

Indoor bamboo plants add grace and beauty to any home or office. There are many variety of bamboo that grow very well indoor. Beautiful as they are, though, lucky bamboo is not bamboo at all. As long as you do a little research and match the type of bamboo to the environmental factors of your home or office, you will be rewarded with a beautiful, long-lasting indoor bamboo plant.

Indoor bamboo plants can be matched to almost any indoor configuration and can be purchased from any good bamboo nursery. So, before you select your bamboo, analyze the environment for just a few important facts.

Light

If the light in your environment is relatively constant throughout the year, your best bet is a tropical variety of bamboo. This is because tropical bamboo is native where light levels don't change much between summer and winter. Most indoor environments will fit in this category.

If you really want a temperate variety that generally grows where the light shifts radically between summer and winter, you can adjust the lighting throughout the year using a variety of electric bulbs, leaving them on longer in the summer and less in the winter.

Also, in general, the larger the leaf, the less light the plant requires.

Height

Indoor bamboo plants can vary from just a few feet in height to higher than your ceiling. Here you are limited only to your imagination. If you want to fill the space all the way to the ceiling, you can plant a variety that grows taller than the ceiling. Bamboo stalks or "culms" can be topped to just below the ceiling height without harming the plant at all. In fact, bamboo benefits from regular trimming and care, just like other indoor plants.

Container

In almost all cases it is preferable to let your bamboo have an ample amount of space to spread. The exception would be for bonsai plants. The lip of the pot should be 2-3 inches above the soil line. It is best to have the container rest in a tray of pebbles with a little water on them to add humidity - something these plants just love. Keep the soil moist to dry. Being a grass, bamboo doesn't like soggy soil. You can use bamboo vases or bamboo baskets to hold your container.

Also realize that the stalks themselves will spread out from the container by about half the circumference of the container.

Temperature

Most indoor environments keep a relative temperature that varies little from season to season. If this is true for you, your best choice is a tropical variety of bamboo. Even though the native plant may be used to growing in 85F, the overriding attribute is that the temperature stays within a few degrees throughout the year. So, even if your indoor temperature is colder than that, say an average of 70F, the bamboo will adjust to that temperature and appreciate the steadiness. Tropical bamboo is also often used to make bamboo flooring.

Color

Most common variety found in the west are primarily green leaves with yellow stalks. But if you truly want another color, you can find it with a bit of ingenuity. You could have leaves that range from green to white as well as variegated. You can have stalks that range from green to red, and blue to black.

Best Indoor Varieties

The following varieties are generally considered the best for indoor applications. But don't be swayed, if you find a variety you truly like, you can generally adapt it to your environment.

• Tall plants: Bambusa multiplex 'Alphonse Karr', Bambusa oldhamii 'Giant Timber Bamboo', Gigantochloa atroviolacea 'Tropical Black Bamboo', Thrysostachys siamensis 'Monastery Bamboo'
• Medium Height Plants:Hibanobambusa tranquillans 'Shiroshima', Otatea acuminata ssp aztecorum 'Mexican Weeping Bamboo', Sinobambusa tootsik albostriata, Chimonobambusa quadrangularis
• Short plants: Pleioblastus shibuyanus 'Tsuboi', Bambusa multiplex 'Tiny Fern' or 'Golden Goddess', Indocalamus tessellates, Chusquea coronalis, Raddia brasiliensis
• Very short plants: Pleioblastus distichus

Be creative and don't be afraid to try your hand at raising bamboo. It doesn't take much to care for your bamboo plant and it truly adds a spark of life to any environment. You will love living with your indoor bamboo plant.