Ok, I'm sure someone noticed... but there was definitely not a post last week for Foliage Friday. My bad. :( I've been a little absent from bloggy world! Last week I helped with our church's annual Vacation Bible School and this week I have been suffering greatly from allergies. But, enough of my excuses! Let's get back into it. :)
Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.
Plant: Dracaena sanderiana, Lucky bamboo
Why: As I mentioned above, last week I helped out with VBS last week. The theme was Pandamania, where we spent the week in the bamboo forests with the kids. I have had bamboo plants in my residence hall room in college, and then Stephanie gave all of the station leaders a bamboo stalk as a thank you. I thought it would be fun to do some actual reading and learn about bamboo outside of the tag that comes with it! I actually learned that the bamboo that we call "lucky bamboo" (the plant that Stephanie gave us) is actually very different than the plants that those cute pandas eat in the bamboo forests. Those bamboo stalks are actually a part of the grass family. Animals do not eat the lucky bamboo plants we keep in our houses.
Landscape: Draceena is considered a house plant, so it is not used in outside landscaping in our USDA zone.
Care: Because there are no landscape uses, I researched care for this plant. It does best with indirect light, as direct sunlight can burn the small leaves it sprouts. This means, keeping it on a windowsill facing south will most likely burn it. Putting it into a room that receives sunlight at some point during the day will be good enough. Many times you will find bamboo planted in water and rocks, but it actually grows better potted in soil. If it is kept in water, be sure to use distilled or filtered water. The less fluoride, the better. And for the healthiest plant, change the water every two weeks or so. Try not to keep your plant by a drafty window in winter, relocate it to the top of your fridge or an upstairs bedroom to avoid it getting too cold.
Other uses: There are no other uses of lucky bamboo.
Fun facts: There are about 1,450 different species of bamboo plants that the pandas eat. As for the lucky bamboo, there are many cultivars sold. In order to get the fun shapes you see in stores, you can manipulate what kind of light and what direction of light the plant gets. This is extremely difficult, but can be done!
Beware - don't let your pet get close to these plants, as bamboo can be very toxic to them. One your bamboo is cut (and you buy it), it will not grow any taller, but it will grow leaves and they will grow.
Information and pictures from: http://luckybambooshop.com
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