Why is Banboo so expencive?

Why is Banboo so expencive?

From what I herd is grown very easily, just divide some and move it and it will begin to grow. I can see pay $5-$10 for some but paying $19-$40 on ebay is out of my price range. Is there something I don't know about the high price? Please advise.

Thanks,

David

I didn't know that it was expensive, all I have ever seen was free. Years ago I saw an ad for free bamboo where someone wanted to get rid of it. I took some and planted in my front yard, a few years later they put in sidewalks, so I moved it to my back yard. When I got my new place I transplanted some of to two diffferent patches. Once it was established, my neighbor asked for a few plants and now he also has a grove. The bamboo has now gone through 5 incarnations and not once was there any money involved. Try to find someone with a large patch who will not mind your digging up a few plants. Dave

Because it is trendy.

Frou frou "garden" shops (S&H, etc...) are banking on people who don't really garden, and who don't know better, to buy up trendy lucky bamboo and inflated prices to put in a vase for indoor decoration. It became a hot item with the fung shui movement. Now you can buy lucky bamboo inside wal mart (not the garden center--the home decor isle), or at the airport.

It's the same reason gourmet cooking stores sells butane at $12 for a

Heidi

Dave wrote:

I'd like to know why it's so expensive too. Different varities are selling from $40 to $100, and over, around here and it's just grass, for crying in the beer. If you can get something like black bamboo on E-bay for $40 I'd say it's a bargain! karen

I was in Thailand about 18 months ago and the "lucky bamboo" was expensive there too. I also wonder why.

"If you bought "Lucky Bamboo," "Chinese Bamboo," "Curly Bamboo" or "Water Bamboo" the plant you bought isn't bamboo at all, and not even a grass."

Quoted from the American Bamboo Society.

The mystery grows.

karen

That's because suckers have to pay big time for being so naive.

The so called "lucky bamboo" isn't a bamboo at all and its lucky only for the unscrupulous vendors who are getting away with selling it to the gullible.

The plant is Dracaena sanderiana native to tropical west Africa (not the orient) and has absolutely nothing at all to do with feng shui.

What variety did you want.? I take a rhizome division in the spring and I pot it up and water it through the summer and then make sure it puts up new shoots the following springn so that you don't end up with a dud 30$ and a damn fine specimen. If you want it for 5-10$ then you come and do the digging and the potting up and the watering and come spring if it makes no new shoots come back with another 5-10$ and try again.

Oh and Heidi "Lucky Bamboo" isn't even in the grass family.

Depends what you mean by 'Bamboo' there are many many different species of plants known as bamboo. A lot of the Phyllostachys (the Black and the Golden are the commonest) have been made very popular by TV gardewning programs and retailers are thus cashing in.. Here in London you can pay about 60 quid (95USD) retail for a medium pot (about 40 litre) of bamboo.. I managed to find a pot for 35 and split it into 2 and that was a reasonable prices given the costs around here. The rarer types bring a higher price range even from mail order suppliers.

Phyllostachys species are also relativly slow growing in this country. Other types are not and are invasive!-)

// Jim

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