My son wanted this cute little plant so I got it for him. I have no idea what's going on inside this pot. The rocks seem glued & the plant does not wiggle at all. Has anyone else bought one and un-potted it yet? TIA!

It looks like your Lucky Bamboo is potted in a sealed pot that may or may not contain soil under the stones. The stones on top are mostly just decorative and can be removed if you want.

Regardless of how it is potted, the roots will stay healthy as long as they get lots of water. Try to keep the water level up pretty close to the rim of the pot. It may need water added very few days. Perhaps your son can help with that.

I have a Dracaena braunii that was a gift from a niece 3 years ago; it's in an enclosed ceramic container with no drainage and seems to be cemented in pebbles. I pour water onto the top of the rocks every so often and it does seep down into the pot. I'm amazed it's lived this long. I keep saying that I'm going to take a hammer to the pot and pebbles to see if I can break them apart but I just never seem to get around to it yet and since it's doing okay I'll probably just let it be. I guess it's a novelty thing but it always amazes me to see plants cemented into containers!


It's not my preference but I'm sure it's a ploy to sell plants and there are some buyers who like the idea of no dirt to make a mess.

... don't get me started on the idea of injecting plants with dye to attract buyers!
I've seen Phalaenopsis orchids with flowers dyed with lighter to deep shades of blue and also deep purple and a year or so ago at a Home Depot garden center, I saw little cacti and succulents that had "color added". A non-gardening friend once gave me a very blue orchid because she knew I liked plants; I immediately knew it had been injected with dye to turn all of the flowers blue; she was stunned when I told her subsequent blooms would not be blue. I don't think she believed me until I showed her the same plant a year later with white blooms.

Thanks for the replies! I would like to know what is going on under there, and do not want to break the pot. Hopefully someone who has gotten one and who sees this discussion will have already investigated theirs.

This pot is about 2" tall, in case the pics don't make that clear. This morning I turned it upside-down out of curiosity and nothing dripped out. I added about a teaspoon of water and it was over-flowing. ...?

Lin, that's pretty :+)

This plant has been rescued. I got a tiny screwdriver and starting chipping off each rock. When I got down a little way, I ran into soggy peat. Gross!! I would do this to a plant if I wanted to kill it, poor thing! I rinsed it off & replaced that sharp gravel with some pretty aquarium gravel, and some fresh rain water. Now this has been repotted AND reported!

Tiffany - I have not seen that specific plant set-up, but I have dealt with others like it that were filled with stones right to the bottom so that there was little space for water retention. That means watering it every day. Not for me!

I think you should try to pry off some of those stones and if you can sccessfully remove the top layer of stones there will be that much more room for water.

Lin - Indeed, it is all about generating sales, not about properly caring for plants. I see a lot of succlents, that are currently all the rage around here, potted in all manor of strange containers usually with no drain holes. Air Plants are another species that seem to lend themselves to strange containers.

It looks great Tiffany, I bet it will start growing like weed now

@purpleinopp, I just repotted a Lucky bamboo I got as a gift at a Christmas office exchange 3 years ago. It was in a pot about the shape and size of a roll on tube of Secret Deodorant. (only thing I could come up with for size )

The rock is glued, and it stayed glued all this time. They are about a foot taller than when I received them. When I pulled them out of their tiny container today, they had decent roots growing in only glued rock. I was expecting much worse. I will take a pic tomorrow for you, Tiffany; and then let you know how they do. I have read that people frequently have the plant die upon repotting to soil. I just wanted them to have more room and more nutrition.

Yes, that is the new horrible trend, plants with glued topping on the soil. I have seen it recently done to a variety of succulents. It's just horrific what sellers think next to do to poor plants. Dyed plants, glued flowers, sprayed snow, glittered soil, now the glued. Arghh
I'm so glad you were able to save this poor one, hope people have saved more of them.

Thanks for the replies! I read a while back that there were some kind of laws about LB, and thought I remembered it was only legal to sell them in water, but maybe that was just about importing. It never occurred to me that there would be anything but water under those rocks.

The layer of glue does not sound like a constant, it was very easy to chip the rocks out of mine but some sound like a lot more glue was used and the rocks are not as easy to chip apart.

The growers and retailers like the glued stones because it makes shipping and handling easier for them. Oh, you thought they were mostly concerned about the end-user?! Ha!

No I did not think that, this plant was supplied by CF (not EA division) and sold @ L's in a condition that had very little chance of success, obviously nobody cared. The info might be relevant to others who might need to rescue a plant trapped in the same ridiculous and deceptive condition but I would not encourage buying them, they'll only make more.

Tiffany - my comment was meant facetiously. What are CF and EA and L?

I thought so, TY. Just venting. CF = Costa Farms, EA = Exotic Angel, L's = Lowe's. Part of me is glad to at least be able to find these offerings relatively nearby, and the other part wishes I could suddenly transport back to OH to shop for plants only at owner-operated stores.

Here in Northern Virginia there are fewer and fewer independent nurseries. It seems mostly the big chain nurseries survive the competition from big box stores.

Bummer. I don't think there ever were stores in the rural area where I live now. I used to visit about 50 awesome greenhouses/nurseries every spring in OH. Some would take 5 mins to see, some would take half of the day. Sometimes I would have to drive home to empty trunk & seats & then go back out to more stores. Not all had house plants, but I've never observed a strict delineation between tender perennials sold as annuals & house plants. I did watch a couple stores that started as single location entities develop more locations, and that's the point where that lovin' feelin' gets lost & it's just mass-produced plants & ambivalent employees.

It's not a competition to me. I rarely find anything that I want but don't already have @ a chain store, and the chances of finding another plant-nut to talk to @ one of those places depends on who else happens to be shopping @ the time. And no chance of being invited into a nonexistent propagation greenhouse.

I understand your pain purpleinopp. I found myself going to Wal-Mart this morning, hoping for something new to look at. Our Lowes have updated their houseplant sections, creating more shelves (and thus more room for more plants), but it's the same ol' same ol'. We have one local nursery and she only sells outdoor plants.

Yes, I so feel your pain, Tiffany. I have one nursery left, and it has been letting go of id's and care and plant development for a couple years now. They are not selling a plant with a proper root system if they can sell a cutting stuck in some soil for the same price. Even succulents. It's really hard to watch the deterioration. They are apparently so hurting, they leave plants with obvious bugs on the shelves, endangering their own plants as well as mine. Customers move plants all over all the time, so I have to wonder how much they are throwing out, when the webbing is really bad. I miss them when they gave their all to never let this happen. I am sure they are struggling under the big box prices. I have and would stay loyal, and I purchase more plants than most. But, 50 people like myself could not keep a good nursery open. I have a couple little mom and pops places that are off the beaten path that are still holding on to their integrity as hard as they can. They deserve some serious kudos.

Laurie, et al. - Sourcing quality plants is increasingly a problem, especially in northern areas. In NYC, we are fortunate to have a flower and plant market with about 25 retail shops all clustered together within roughly one block. (It is on 28th Street, if you have occasion to visit NYC.) The shops get deliveries direct from FL every week and can often get plants on special order. So, I am spoiled, BUT...

A hot real estate market is slowly driving these small businesses out as their leases expire and their rents are tripled or their buildings are torn down. Soon this market will be gone and I will be reduced to going to the big boxes or traveling out of town to local nurseries that are also disappearing. Progress? I wonder!

In the 1960's, 70's and 80's we had numerous small family owned and operated nurseries as well as a few nice larger nurseries nearby but with the birth of Home Depot's, Lowes and Wal-marts, they've mostly all gone out of business. We only have one long time family owned garden center remaining and one wholesale nursery.