I just took in my smaller vivax aureocaulus division which emerged from a bare rhizome. I have never tried overwintering bamboo divisions indoors before, but I think it should do fine since it is by a south facing window, in a pretty large pot with good draining soil and has been growing since May. This is one of the ones that turned floppy due to the lack of energy, but it has hardened up now. One thing I find with vivax as well as some other bamboos that tend to make fat rhizomes is that they don't tend to make that many shoots, but they do upsize pretty fast.

When I grew moso/kwangsiensis/heteroclada seedlings, I found that the ones indoors seemed to produce more shoots overall vs the outdoor ones however the size was compromised a bit since they never went through the whole dormancy cycle. I'm hoping for this one to make a few more shoots, stay small & dividable, and perhaps it will be eased back into dormancy for a bit in early spring so it can probably put out another round of shoots. I hope this will shoot in 1-2 weeks.

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After 3 weeks, the vivax aureocaulus looks like it is putting on more and more leaves, but still shows absolutely no sign of shooting despite having soil temperature around 70F and with south facing window light. If it was a moso, it would have made shoots in less than a week under the same conditions, but vivax is one of the later shooters which tends to focus more on saving up enough energy for a major upsize instead of producing more shoots.


Here is the progress as of 21 November so another leaf has been produced on each active branch.

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It does look healthier and happier!

Don

Could the light have something to do with it? I know tropical house plants (banana, dracenea, ficus etc) all shut down, or slow down during the winter. I have 2 pots of Passiflora Incarnata indoors ATM. The stems are yellow, and it dropped leaves a few weeks ago. It is far from dead, just dormant due to the lack of light (especially at 48 degrees latitude).

I have a feeling once light levels change, say, late january early february, you might get a big suprise!. You did mention it being a "late' species, so maybe not till march?

I have heard of some bamboo growing indoors - Pseudosasa Japonica, and some Fargesia species. I wouldnt fertilize it myself, but seeing as it is still growing to some extent, id keep watering it regularly.

I should also say, this is assumptions. I have never grown bamboo inside before, but I do have over 100 houseplants, probably 30 or 40 different kinds. Im assuming based on that experience. Hopefully some one can give you more hands on advice. So far, it seems to be doing good!

I think with the lack of light, there's probably also a lack of energy being produced, so with such a tiny culm, it can take a long time to store up enough energy to put out a culm. Bamboos such as vivax, moso bicolor, dulcis & atrovaginata tend to put a lot of focus on the production of larger shoots and don't make that many of them so it is possible that this doesn't shoot until next summer even being indoors where the temperature is 72F. I also believe that up here, bamboos get more than enough of a dormancy season so I don't think bringing it indoors for a houseplant can be that bad for it.

It does look very bushy now so I wouldn't be surprised if I see a shoot emerge any day.

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I bought a wintergreen plant (gaultheria procumbens) as an indoor plant, but I am not sure if it will survive indoors. I believe it needs a very long dormancy period and is quite cold tolerant, so I was wondering if it should be planted outside instead of inside.

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It looks like one of those zone 3 plants probably very closely related to blueberries based on how they look so it might need a month or two of dormancy in order to perform well in the long run. The great part about these types of plants is that I can keep a blueberry plant in it's pot unprotected and just leave it outside over the winter, and it will just resume growing the following spring because they that cold hardy. It will probably survive a winter indoors, but without a dormancy period, it will be completely out of the growth hormones that are produced during that phase so you may have little or no growth over the summer.

I would also guess that this plant can also propagate easily from cuttings like blueberries so you might be able to make more of them to experiment. My blueberries have already lost their leaves for a while so I might try taking one of my rooted cuttings in to see how well it grows inside.

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Benboo: I agree with Steve. If it's a plant that needs a winter dormant period, it won't do well indoors year-round. Of course if it's cold out now you just can't move it from the warm indoors to outdoor, so I'm not sure what you can do. You may have to keep it indoors this year, then plan on keeping it outside next winter.

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I bought it because I wanted to plant it outside as a groundcover, and I thought it seemed odd to have a winter loving plant as a houseplant.

It is actually quite warm yet, *knock on wood* and some plants like my elephant garlic are still growing, so I hope it will not have any problems with the cold.

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Wintergreen plant is cool. You can make tea with the leaves, and is a great ground cover in highly acidic, organic soil. They are native to my neck of the woods, and further north and west, so they can take about -40C.

IIR, they grow in birtch/pine/blueberry communities, so they love acidity, and can apparently take bog conditions.

They dont like to be indoors for the winter. I killed mine last year, and the new one i got is slowly declining. Ill throw it in the unheated area of the house. I bet a cool, and not to sunny window would work as well?

I like the edible berries, they taste like, well... wintergreen.

And speaking of things in windows... hey Steve, some of those little musa basjoo pups that were growing off the other pups started rooting and poking little leaves up. if a 5 inch tall pup can root and grow, I have little doubt of the 3 foot tall ones!

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The corm part of the banana is actually pretty hardy, but the leafy stem section can get destroyed whenever it drops below 20F so as long as the corm is well underneath soil lvl, they should come back strong since the corm holds the most energy. I'm guessing the corms should be well rooted by now in preparation to start up again by late April. It seems that any section of banana that has enough corm stuck to it can root and generate a new plant with the right conditions. It's easy for musa basjoo to multiply but it's a bit harder to turn them into giants, and I want mine to get to flowering size which should be 15-20ft.

As far as the Vivax aureocaulus, it is finally putting out it's first shoots after 6 weeks for being indoors which is only a bit larger than the original, but there's always the chance that more will follow since this shoot doesn't look like it will completely drain the energy of this plant.

Here are the pictures. One shows that it has lots of millipedes. There are tiny white ones, and some over an inch long which are straight black crawling around the soil.

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Are millipedes bad for plants after they finish eating the old leaves and organic material? Will they start to feed on the plant roots?

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I really doubt it because I've seen them on my indoor plants every winter. They never seem to escape the pot, and will only multiply when the plant gets watered too much. They might harm other plants, and look creepy, but I don't see them as a threat. They're on my outdoor bamboos too, especially on the well pampered ones.

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There are a bunch in most of my pots.

I made things that I called Poo bears, which were bear shaped animal cracker containers that were filled with whatever I weeded out of the garden, twigs, a scoop of dirt, and old leaves. I put some water in there, shook it up, and left it on the driveway. within a few weeks, it makes good soil. The "poo" comes from the stink it gets if you leave too much water in it and try to empty it out. Also from Winnie the Pooh.

Things grow pretty quick in those. For example, small bush beans, jalapenos, and millipedes...

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