Landscapers and home gardeners alike are both discovering the amazing possibilities that bamboo plants offer the landscape. From living green screens and hedges to indoor and outdoor potted plants, bamboo can quickly transform any area into a green focal point. However, many people fail to realize just how easy it is to keep potted bamboo plants.

When properly cared for, potted bamboo plants can thrive to full maturity. With a well-draining pot that provides insulation from the elements and a steady diet of nutrients, you are on your way to having a happy healthy bamboo plant. In addition, your potted bamboo plant is going to need plenty of sunlight (unless you have chosen a bamboo that can grow well in low light conditions).

The Old Switch-A-Roo

An industry trick that numerous commercial buildings and offices use in order to provide fresh greenery on a regular basis, that never looks droopy or discolored, is to keep two plants. By continually rotating the 2 plants indoors and out, you can ensure that your plants are receiving a good amount of sunlight and fresh air. This also ensures that your potted indoor bamboo plants always look their freshest and brightest.

Whether you are planning to use potted bamboo in your outdoor landscaping or as part of your home’s interior décor, there are simply some bamboo plants that do better in pots. However, with an appropriate and hardy bamboo, you can guarantee that your plants thrive and provide a continual source of greenery.

The Best Bamboo For Pots

Green Onion Bamboo

Green Onion Bamboo is not only great for a hedge, but it is also a unique specimen as a running bamboo. Unlike most running bamboo, Green Onion is non-invasive and very easy to care for. In addition, Green Onion is a very hardy bamboo, can thrive in minimal light requirements and makes an excellent choice for a potted bamboo plant.

Green Onion bamboo is amazing for its minimum light requirements,

as well as for its capacity to easily adapt to the surroundings. However, it is important to remember that occasional fresh air is a necessity, so whether you leave it outdoors for a while or you provide fresh air through an open window, it will prosper when grown in pots.

When grown in pots, Green Onion can be kept either outdoors or indoors. As this is a highly adaptable bamboo plant, it does great in any temperature, even in colder areas. However, it is still recommended to keep it indoors during winter, as long as its size will allow you to do so.

Green Onion Bamboo offers a light green foliage that contrasts beautifully with its culms, which can easily be propagated into new plants. That is why Green Onion Bamboo is not only a great potted plant, but a great beginner bamboo as well. With only the most basic of requirements, this bamboo can thrive anywhere you put it.

With regular watering and a high nitrogen, slow release fertilizer, this bamboo plant will have everything it needs to grow into full maturity. Green Onion is one of the hardiest bamboos that there is, and it is also one of the easiest to care for.

Given the lack of aggressiveness and the easy caring requirements of Green Onion Bamboo, this is a great choice for potted bamboo, as well as beginners.

Buddha Belly Bamboo

Buddha Belly Bamboo is yet another great choice for potted bamboo. Being one of the most adaptable and versatile bamboo types, this bamboo will be healthy and green even if kept indoors. Although it is easier to be kept outdoors, its ability to adapt to almost any light condition makes it perfect for being used as an office plant or even as a bonsai house plant.

You need to offer it special attention in order to make it fully ‘belly out’. This is obtained by artfully starving it for water. Whether grown outdoors or indoors, this bamboo will make a wonderful potted bamboo plant.

Buddha Belly is one of the toughest tropical clumping bamboo plants and it is adaptable to a wide range of soil conditions and temperatures. Its belly-like mutation is maintained through water stress, but the result is simply amazing.

When grown in pots, Buddha Belly Bamboo has a limited vertical growth, thus obtaining a dwarf clump, which makes an amazing bonsai-like plant. If it is kept in shady dry areas, or in sunny and well drained spots, it achieves superior bellies.

However, only water stress is not enough in order to obtain the much-admired belly of this bamboo plant. Additionally, it is required to remove the spear leaf from the bamboo shoot when it reaches your desired height. The spear leaf is the tip most, unopened leaf of the bamboo plant. When the spear leaf and culms are cut at the desired height, they will never grow any taller and the plant will branch out more than growing upwards.

More Great Bamboo Plants For Pots

Aside from Green Onion Bamboo and Buddha Belly Bamboo, there are also other bamboo plants that are great to keep in pots, whether indoors or outdoors.

Here are some of the best varieties to keep as potted bamboo plants:

Yellow Buddha Belly – Similar to Buddha Belly Bamboo, this one has cream canes with a green stripe on them, yet grows very similar.

Fernleaf Bamboo – Thanks to its size, this is an excellent choice for small spaces, therefore being one of the best indoor potted bamboo plants.

Fernleaf Stripestem – This is one of the smallest clumping bamboo types, and it makes a wonderful potted bamboo.

Alphonse Karr – This is quite a colorful bamboo type, with yellow and green striped canes, and new shoots emerging pink.

Silverstripe – This is highly adaptable, so it can easily be grown in pots, whether indoors or outdoors. One of the attractions of this plant is its white stripes on the leaves and culms.

The Best Potted Bamboo Plants

Whether you are looking to enhance the landscaping of your outdoors, or the décor of your indoors, a potted bamboo is always a great option. Choosing the best bamboo plants to keep in pots ensures your success in making a wonderful surrounding for you and your family.