Yes...they are often sold as houseplants. My mother was a florist and we used to sell them. Eventually they succumb to dry interior air, spider mites, low light, etc, but if you put them outside in summer and try to replicate their native environment as best you can, you may have decent success, at least for a while.

I've kept one alive indoors for three years. It's on a window sill which faces northwest, and I water it once a week. The temperature is a consistent 72 degrees year round (it's at my office). I probably need to get a bigger pot for it, but at some point I'm just going to have to say goodbye. It's a beautiful plant, but it also wants to be a giant tree.

you might want to try the houseplant forum ....

we had one upwards of 20 years ... easy peasy .... we even had a set of small one inch xmas ornaments for our charlie brown tree ... lol ...

often we see posts about peeps finding 8 footers being found at the curb.. and new peeps coming along and trying to jam them in their house ... only to realize why they were at the curb .... that darn ceiling was in the way .. lol...

before we got a humidifier .... dry forced air heating .... could be a winter problem in the frozen north .... aka .. lack of ambient humidity ... for years we spritzed it with water ... every now and then ... no real clue if that did much of anything other than make the wall wet .... which resulted in a loud lecture from a parental unit .... about wet walls.. lol ...

rather forgiving regarding light levels ... but the upside is.. low light ... reduces vigor ... aka annual growth rate ... which make that ceiling further away ... lol .. never repotting it .. once you get to about a 15 gal pot .... also reduces vigor ....

on the other hand.. they are huge telephone pole trees in new zealand i believe .. well.. norfolk island ... lol ... so there is vast potential ... fear your success ... lol ...

ken

as always ... converting to the latin gets you better info

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Araucaria+heterophylla+forest&t=ffcm&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

A few of the neighbors in the area have really tall ones growing outside (zone 10).

That probably doesn't help you.

They are not difficult as long as your indoor winter conditions are not hot and dry. Especially helpful if they can spend the growing season outside, depending where you are. (Mine used to be out from mid March well into November.) The problem is, eventually they wanna be big TREES.

The biggest problem with these is they out grow their welcome. I've had three in my life, and all reached their limit inside. Two I grew in my house, summered outdoors. When they reached 8 feet, I gave them away. The third I grew in my cold greenhouse, and when it mashed it's leader against the plastic at 11 feet, a cold night, about -3F, killed about 2 feet of it's leader, from which it never recovered and was shown the door. BTW, these trees are really Cook Island Pine, rather than Norfolk. If they were Norfolks, they would take up width rather than height indoors.

Woody trees pretty much need to be outside much of the time to grow wood and branches properly. Actually most "house plants" would grow better out of the house, but many do survive for years and years inside.

The biggest problem with these is they out grow their welcome.

==>>> well.. perhaps ... but the biggest problem is the marketing ... they are sold in bigboxstore as DISPOSABLE holiday plants for a couple bucks ... and then peeps fall in love with them.. with little no no understanding of their TREE potential ...

ken

I wonder if they can be trunk layered when they get too tall?

Agree with subtropix and kenn they can last for years inside if a house isn't too dry and hot.