Does Lucky Bamboo Bloom?
Ask the Expert: When does the Blooming "Lucky Bamboo" put on bloom
At what time of year can I expect this blooming lucky bamboo to bloom? When I bought this one others were blooming and that was 11 months ago now. Tippie
Reply:
Tippie,
I haven't seen lucky bamboo bloom. Although all plants bloom at some point, the blooms may be small and insignificant or may take several years to occur. According to my sources, lucky bamboo has not been known to bloom in cultivation — only in the wild. I scanned the internet for image of lucky bamboo blooms — some were definitely miss representations. It was evident that other blooms like orchid blooms were attached to the lucky bamboo. I assume a lucky bamboo bloom would look like a corn plant bloom, since both are in the Dracaena genus. In this case, the blooms would be small flowers with tubular bases and 6 spreading tepals. In nature Dracaenas bloom in the summer. However, when we bring plants into our homes the natural blooming cycle is often inhibited. My resources indicate that Dracaenas only bloom when the plants are mature and several years old. The grower where your stalks cam from may have a way to force lucky bamboo to bloom. Unforunately, I don't know how to make lucky bamboo bloom. My thought is that it will take at least a couple of years before it will bloom on its own. Hopefully one of our readers will know the answer.
