It has been such a cold winter and early spring that most of my bamboos are just getting started.
Fargesia robusta has really hit its stride, as you can see from the pics. The existing culms on this plant are about 8′-10′ tall, and I am expecting the new shoots to top out over 15′ by the end of the growing season. You can click on the pics to see a much larger image.
Fargesia robusta shoots
Fargesia robusta
Fargesia scabrida is right behind the Robusta. This is a younger plant that was set back from transplanting in fall of 2007, and it’s sited in baking sun, so the shoots aren’t going to be much over 8′ this year. Scabrida has some of the most intersting and varied seasonal color of all the bamboos I have grown. This time of year, the late shoots from last fall are nearly black, with white nodes.
Fargesia scabrida Shoots
Black culm of Fargesia scabrida
Chimonobambus tumidissinoda shoots are just peeking out of the duff, but not visible in the photo below. They will be coming up fast now that it is warming up a bit. This bamboo seems to love cool weather and shady afternoons. New shoots will actually flop at a right angle if we have a sudden warm spell, say over 80 degrees. Best growth seems to occur between 60-70 degrees F. Here’s a short clip of this bamboo billowing in the breeze.
Shoots still in the duff
Chinese Walking Stick Bamboo
I’ll have more pics up as the shooting season progresses
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Cool pics… why do you put sawdust around the shoots???
Actually, those are wood pellets I used for bedding for an indoor rabbit, litter box. They disintegrate after it rains. The rabbit manure and the urine fortified bedding make great top dressing for the bamboo. Thanks for the comment!
Cool… but for what purpose? I sort of get the sense that once a shoot has broken ground, pretty much nothing will stop it. So I guess the mulch is just to visually reduce unsightly weeds, etc?
The bedding isn’t just sawdust, but has urine and rabbit manure in it too, so it adds nutrients to the soil (stuff in the pic was added last summer). I mulch with grass clipping and I chip up the thinned out canes and mulch with that as well. Adds organic matter and suppresses weeds too.
Can you add the rabbit manure directly to the bed or does it have to be aged?
jp
I have added both fresh and aged rabbit, horse, and steer manure right on top of my bamboos, and the bamboos love it!
Does it depend on the time of year? Can you add fresh rabbit manure when the bamboo is just starting to shoot?
jp