Comments on: Winter Bamboo

By: Larry

Larry — Fri, 20 May 2011 22:52:18 +0000

Well, I finally gave up on the dead culms above ground and lopped them off. However now there is a new happening. There is a lot of new growth coming up but a lot of the culms of 4 different plants have leaves that are partially shredded. These culms just don’t look healthy. Any ideas> Thanks–Larry

By: Larry

Larry — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 13:03:11 +0000

Thanks for the advice. There are now some new shoots popping out of the ground so the plants did make it through the winter. Still no new growth on the old culms though. I’ll give them a little more time before lopping them off if they don’t produce leaves–Larry

By: philinshelton

philinshelton — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:35:52 +0000

I would wait to cut them down until a little bit later to see if any new leaves start to unfurl, however, from your description the culms are probably dead. Hopefully, you will get some new shoots even if the top growth is completely dead. Extended periods of cold, even well above the published cold hardiness of the plant (bamboo especially) can be very hard on small plants especially. I lost about 40 one gallon denudata when it dropped to about 10 degrees F., and a few more days in the 20′s, even though they were protected in a cold frame. Go figure.

By: Larry

Larry — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:52:08 +0000

I planted 4, 1 gal F. denudata last year and they did fine, putting on lots of new growth. This winter we had temps down to the single digits but not below 0 and certainly not down tot he -10 value I seen as the limiting factor for F. denudata. However during the first prolonged period of freezing temps the leaves on my plants all keeled and the culms went blonde. There still is some green on the bottoms of some culms but so far no new growth on them or from the roots. It appears everything above ground is dead. Should I cut it all back to ground level or wait and see what will happen?

By: Bamboo Grower

Bamboo Grower — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 11:07:56 +0000

We have clumping bamboo screening us from our neighbors – only difference is we are sub-tropical and I can’t stop the stuff from growing! They do make very good privacy screens though. Good luck setting yours up.

By: philinshelton

philinshelton — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:55:52 +0000

For your zone, you are going to be very limited in your choices of clumping bamboo. The only one I would recommend that will survive both the cold, the full sun and the coastal winds is Fargesia rufa. Under ideal conditions, that bamboo can reach about 9' tall, but I wouldn't expect it to get that tall in the conditions you describe, and it will probably suffer a lot of leaf damage over winter. My expertise is limited to growing bamboo on the coastal side of the Cascades, so I recommend that you pose the question of which clumping bamboo to use to the folks on the forum at bambooweb. Here's a link: . You will have to register using the link at the top left of the screen in order to post a question. I think you are going to find that one of the running bamboos will be a better (maybe the only) choice for creating the screening you desire. Phyllostachys bissetii is good bet. The bed you describe is a little on the narrow side, but you can grow a nice screen in it if are willing to do some maintenance a few times a year to control spread. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Thanks for the comments on the videos!

By: ron rogers

ron rogers — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:56:25 +0000

Hello,

I have some questions about clumping bamboo.

Here’s what I’m looking to do:

I have a raised bed surrounded by field stone. It is about 3′ wide, 25′ long, by 1′ tall. I would like bamboo to fill in this area to block the view of my neighbors driveway. The bed in in full sun and it will be exposed to strong coastal winds.

How long will it take for a cold hardy bamboo to reach a minimum height of 7 foot? How many plants would it take to fill in the area?

I live along the coast in RI, zone 6A i believe.

ps I enjoyed the youtube video, now my wife cannot complain when i but a battery operated sawsall;)
thanks
Ron