Lucky Bamboo
Dracaena sanderiana
also called dracaena sanderiana
Not a bamboo at all but a dracaena, usually grown in a vase — which makes what you fill the vase with the whole of the care regime.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 11.8 in
- In-row spacing
- 11.8 in
- Between rows
- 15 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
Growing
- Type
- Houseplant · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Sunlight
- Part shade
- Feeding
- All-purpose balanced
- Frost tolerant
- No
Through the year
- Mar–Dec Spring Growth
- Jan–Mar Spring Growth
Pests & problems
- Mealybugs Mealybug and spider mites once the air runs dry
- Root & crown rot Mushy stems where bacterial rot sets into water left to go stale
- Algae greening the water in a clear vase — an opaque one keeps it dark
- Yellow leaves after direct sun, chlorinated water, or too much feed
- Brown leaf tips from the fluoride and chlorine in tap water
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carneaHunts Mealybugs
Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.
- Hoverfly SyrphidaeHunts Mealybugs
Bee-mimicking flies whose legless larvae graze aphid colonies clean while the adults pollinate. A ribbon of shallow, nectar-rich flowers kept in bloom all season recruits wave after wave of them.
- Ladybird (lady beetle) CoccinellidaeHunts Mealybugs
The gardener’s favorite ally: adults and their alligator-shaped larvae each eat thousands of aphids, plus scale, mealybugs, and other soft-bodied sap-suckers. Grow flat, open flowers for the adults and never spray a colony that ladybird larvae are already working.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com