Bamboo Palm: Adorn Your Home with Beauty and Elegance

Bamboo palm (Chamaedorea erumpens) makes a beautiful indoor houseplant with its long, drooping jade-green leaves that grow on cane-like stems.

It is a graceful plant that can grow up to 6 feet tall and add elegance to any room. It is native to Mexico and Central South America.

This tropical palm is very popular with decorators.   It thrives indoors in low light and adds an instant attraction to the decor.    You can often find them in hotel lobbies, office buildings and shopping malls.

You can get that special decorative touch just by setting the potted bamboo palm plant into a wicker basket for a tropical look.  If you want a more formal look, place the plant in a cachepot.

It is also low-maintenance, thrives in low light, and easily tolerates the warm and cool air conditions in the home environment-- yielding the added health benefits of clean air in the home.

Natural Air Cleaning Bamboo Palm

This plant is a natural defense tool against indoor air pollution. It improves the air quality by filtering the indoor air of toxins such as nitrogen oxide and formaldehyde.

Many of the items that we use every day such as plastic wallpaper, carpeting and rug pads, insulation, laminated counters, veneer furniture, plywood, cleaning supplies, air fresheners, adhesives, printers and copy machines contain volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) which are synthetic materials that "off-gas" toxins.

VOCs cannot be avoided because they are found in such a wide variety of the products in our indoor environment; however, you can take steps to make your air healthier by having this plant in your home. Place one large plant or two smaller plants (4 to 5 inch pots) in a 100 sq ft room to remove toxins from the air.

Another great quality of the Chamaedorea erumpens is that it releases
life-sustaining oxygen into the air to make breathing easier.

How to Care for Your Palm Bamboo

Light: Low to medium (near a bright window).

Temperature: 55 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit, but can tolerate temperatures as low as 40 degrees without damage.

Watering: Water thoroughly, then allow the soil to drain and empty excess water; then allow the top one inch of soil to dry slightly to touch between waterings. A well-draining potting mixture should be used. This is necessary to prevent root rot which can kill your plant.

Humidity: The plant likes humid environment. Mist daily or place on humidity tray. A room humidifier will work well for this plant.

Fertilizer: Fertilize during the growing season with a granular, time-release fertilizer.

Repotting: Repot the plant in sterilized potting soil when it completely fills up the pot.

Propagation: Propagate by seeds, offsets, or division.

Pruning: When you see leaves start to turn yellow or brown and wilt, use pruning shears to remove these leaves at the base.

Pests: Check for spider mites and scale on the underside of leaves; if present, spray with appropriate pesticide. You can also wash leaves with a soapy solution to lessen the presence of mites.

The bamboo palm is exotic and attractive to have indoors and will even produce tiny sprays of flowers when it reaches maturity.