Question
I have been growing an indoor bamboo plant in my office for the past year. I believe it is a Indocalamus tessellatus. It has 5 stocks and is over 3 feet tall. It receives only artificial light. I would like to separate the stalks and replant them. How would I go about doing this?

Answer
You can find an excellent illustrated instruction booklet at the Oregon Bamboo Association's website:

http://www.oregonbambooassociation.org/downloads/dividingbamboo.pdf

I've been waiting for someone to ask me about this plant just so I could direct them to Oregon Bamboo.  You know the saying: One picture is worth a thousand words.

Meantime, I. tessellatus is famous for its enormous Bamboo leaves and the way it thrives in Shade.  That's why it is doing so well under your artifical lighting system.  You may know it's very cold hardy and will not only survive, but thrive, outdoors.  Eventually it will reach 5 to 8 feet.

The only reason this plant is not more popular is that it is a Bamboo, and Bamboo has a bad reputation for being dangerously invasive.  At the Country What Not Gardens, it is listed on their order-of-invasiveness species list and is only 'moderately' invasive:

http://www.countrywhatnotgardens.com/bamboo/bamboo_descriptions.html

Turning this into part of your outdoor landscape, turns out, is not the irrevocable decision you were warned you would regret.

Then, it is so happy under your lights, why not just keep a good thing going?

Thanks for writing.