Lucky Bamboo, Bracts and Pruning Evergreens
Ellen and C.L. talk about lucky bamboo; what type of plant it is and how to care them. We explain what bracts are and why some plants have very showy ones, talk about making more plants by air layering, and answer Sal’s question about pruning evergreens now so the greens can be used for holiday decorating.
:32 True or False? Lucky bamboo. Is it really bamboo? Is it lucky?
7:25 Plant Noob: Bracts. What are they?
12:20 Eat/Drink/Grow: Propagating plants by “air layering.”
17:51 Love Letters and Questions: Sal asks about pruning evergreens in December.
I call this “not-so-lucky-bamboo. First the plants were bent into heart shapes and “decorated” with fake flowers, then left to dry up in an obscure location above the Coke machine in a drugstore. All of this to show why you should seek out plants at your local garden center…just sayin’.
Although the Poinsettia would be the obvious choice for a photo to illustrate bracts at this time of year, I chose to make Ellen happy and use this Hellebore shot instead. (Ellen and I have differing opinions about Poinsettias – listen to Ep 027 for more…) Yes, these look like petals on the Hellebore but they are really bracts, which last far longer than petals do.
It’s fine to trim boughs that are 12 to 18″ off larger evergreens – just try and make the cuts just above where the stem joins another so that the new growth will still look natural and the plant won’t appear hacked.