Name that bamboo

You know, I always do wonder how it just shows up beside the road like that. Must fly out of someone's truck or something when they clear property somewhere else.

You see a lot of fast growers (weeds) along road sides. Full sun and usually a good amount of water from road run off. I think it's more like seeds flying around everywhere looking for a good spot but in the case of bamboo which doesn't seed very often that is a good question. Where I saw the wild bamboo is out in a swamp that has never had anyone hang around very long. I would think, that has had ohhhh a few 10's of millions of years to move in. LOL. Probably showed up when the gators did. Since I live near these old growth untouched swamps i really should bone up on what is growing out there and see if I can find something odd.

i've gone walking around in our swamps last year when they were dry in the drought.... pretty cool stuff in there

DW and I used to go hiking in Congaree Swamp (NP now I guess) to prep for our hiking trips in HI, but only in the winter. The snakes are enough to keep me off the "back woods" trails during the summer. I'll stick to the boardwalks that time of year.

havent been there in a while... i should go some time

It's really nice. The late night "owl prowls" I'd hoped would be good too, but the two times we've gone... no owls. So I guess it was just a prowl.

keonikale, you raise a good question on whether or not it could be p. aurea...sorry for the confusion but it could also be this...since I got my plant at Lowe's it's hard to know if the label was correct. could maybe be this also if the link works

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/81044/

That's "Alphonse Karr' Ardesia! The green stripes are a dead give-away! I love that plant! I stuck some in the ground 3 years ago to hide an ugly Range Marker in the marsh. It's grown beautifully with minimal care, and I can't see the range marker anymore. It has spread to about twice it's original circumference (5 gal. container) and doubled in height, but no way could it be considered "invasive". Liked it so much I went searching for more, but couldn't find any locally, so I had to drive up to east-bum-you-know at Nurseries Caroliniana. Ted Stevens was still growing them, so I scored 2 more 3 gallon containers to fill in the screen. I'll post a picture of the screen tomorrow night. I really like it! I think George has started stocking it at Hyam's again...(sure, now that I don't need it!)...

Tropicanna, that could be it too... it's tough to say. The base of the bamboo looks very unique though.

When we go to dig up more of the local grove I have access to this weekend I'll snap some photos of it there. For now we'll likely just use bamboo from that grove since it's free (they're about to bullzone it). I just would like to definitely ID it so I'd know what I'm working with. Maybe the other photos will help.

That's it Stono, The gaps between my brain cells seem to be getting larger lately.

I would not complain about an excuse to have to go to Ted Stephen's place.

Have you been to Specialty Trees in Meggett? I wonder if they carry bamboo? They are having an open house for Master Gardeners on April 29th and I hope to go then.

Never even heard of Specialty Trees---but I love driving around Megget, so do you have an address/location?
I went to Nursery Caroliniana to get 2 1gal pots of Alphonse Karr. I could fit 2 1gal. pots easily in my smallest car, but I took the truck, because I knew what would happen... Well, it happened. Just like I knew it would. Came back with a full truck! Some form of therapy is called for here, I think!!!

I think a few of us could go to that therapy session. Last year when we drove to Florida I actually was considering getting a U-Haul trailer. You should have seen my wife's expression when I mentioned it. Instead we just packed more plants than should ever be squished inside a Chevy Trailblazer, LOL.

Things are SO much cheaper in Florida than here, especially the tropicals.

In the announcement for the MG open house it mentions the address is his home and the nursery is around the corner and that there will be signs directing. His house is on Little Britton Road and there is a wholesale nursery right across the street - no connection. This is what I found online; perhaps you could give him a call. He had a booth at the CHS/Middleton Festival the last time I went which was two years ago. Really good quality material.

Specialty Trees - Ashe Point Plantation, LLC
Anthony Merk
Meggett, SC 29449
Charleston County
specialtytrees@mac.com
Phone: 843-889-3289
Fax: 843-889-3289
Retail sales, wholesale grower

You know John, even the big bix stores in FL have a better variety and the price difference is out of sight. I bought a loropetalum in Fl for $4 which was $16 in Beaufort. It was the same size pot, same grower/label, same same everything.

It really is kinda crazy... up here the Christmas Palms cost a jaw dropping $400 for the size I wanted. I had no idea what the true cost was, so at the time it seemed reasonable for a tree that tall (8-9'). A month later when walking through one of the nurseries in Homestead, FL I asked how much one of the trees a bit larger than what I purchased cost. When he told me $60 I about choked. I brought 4 small trees home for $10 a piece - which around here would likely go for $100 or more. Not that I could ever part with them. :)

....and I was in Jacksonville, just 2 1/2 hours from here.

Well this project is about wrapped up. I'm still digging the 5th hole up in the yard, where the Majesty palm is, but once we have that done - we're set. I have 7 large canes additionally dug up (out of the photo) - 4 of them ready to go into the last container and the other three into one that's behind the wall.

We did end up using five 50 gallon ponds like I posted in this post above: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=4702995

Here's the (almost) final result.

Here's another.

And another. Hate I had to tie them all up... but the wind was gusting up to 25-30mph here yesterday and I had no choice.

After working more with the bamboo this weekend, I now feel very confident this bamboo IS phyllostachys aurea. The base of the bamboo is a very close match to other pictures I've seen of phyllostachys aurea.

Here's a third party shot that matches mine exactly:
http://www.haikubamboonursery.com/Plants/SD530127.JPG

And it was also labeled as phyllostachys aurea. So I think we finally have our ID.

Thanks for the help. Now I know what I'm working with :)

is it a runner or an clumper...

good question diehrd..if I recall correctly it is supposed to be a clumper (but they still put out runners just not as aggressively).

now I just have to make sure mine is the same as yours..lol..I'll try and get close-ups soon enough

They are kinda both. The run, but they also stay in a decent (fairly large) clump. I'm almost positive it's phyllostachys aurea; or it's closest cousin. I started looking at lots and lots of photos for comparison and it just matches perfectly.

I really just hope they establish themselves well enough in the coming weeks I can remove all that ugly string. It looks like a maze. We put the 5th pond in the ground (my lord that was a hole) and got the rest of the bamboo in today. It's wilted a bit, which is no surprise, but once it develops, this will be a great screen and a nice backdrop to all the banana, cannas, and EE's I'm putting in front.

I'm pretty sure about your ID, also, I'm just questioning my own plant because mine has lots of little branches and the culms are super tight together. I'm sure it's just me, they're probably the same,I'll try to get a picture it's been raining the past few days

They do get strong very fast, very adaptable plant

so are all the plants you wintered in your garage going in that area and staying :) I promised myself no more new plants that are less hardy than zone 8b this year, and I have to get rid of my true tropicals..lol

I made a promise to myself and the wife I'd try and start growing more hardy items that could stay outside in the ground. I've had to get creative (and use some tips like Brian gave in his thread) - but the number of items going inside next year will be fewer (I hope). The halides really did raise the electric bill quite substantially.

But things like the Christmas Palms, Giant Bird of Paradise, and the Traveler's Palms will always have to come inside. I think I could probably plant a lot of my gingers and they'd be fine. My heliconia's - not so much, so they'll have to also come in. Same with the monsteras... and oh the list goes on and on, LOL.

But as I sit here saying all this, I have to admit I just bought 10 Traveler's Palms that were raised from seedlings, they're about 2' tall already. I'm thinking of raising some things and selling them now. For a 27 year old, I've gotten quite into gardening. And the shocker is my wife has gotten into it - she was a city girl.

So what I reduced... I've probably already started making up for again. I'm a glutton for high energy bills I guess. How ironic is it I'm using more energy ON green plants of all things? Does that make me more or less green? LOL

This message was edited Mar 31, 2008 9:15 PM

precisely the argument I made against myself, particularly when considering the GH bills....I think (no promises yet due to serious plant collecting issues) that this winter I'm going to go for a cool GH. Most of what I really wanted to keep stayed dormant all winter anyway despite my efforts to keep them growing......

plus, we're having the serious drought here in NC, so I am focusing more on the drought tolerant hardies, xeriscaping, natives...etc. I feel like it will ultimately be a reality that we all will have to face water conservation measures. I can't be married to the water hose again this summer. I'm not tossing any of the hardy tropicals, but misc. things like hydrangeas, hostas...brugs...not a priority anymore. looking for replacements...lol

You raise a good point about the watering. And here I go looking for brugs, LOL. I'm worried this dry pattern is becoming the norm over time. But at least it's not horrible yet. This week has looked like rain so far, but we've hardly gotten anything out of it - just cool temps that are confusing the plants. I still had to go water tonight. I am mulching a lot better this year though for starters, so that should help. I think even sinking my potted items in the ground, even the largest ones, helps too.

It's bad for us, keonikale! I would laugh but I can't, I felt like we were given a small taste of what hades is really like last summer

I'm actually lucky in this location, no restrictions but still hotter than heck and I had to water daily just to keep everything alive...not thriving but barely hanging on. just dowgraded from exceptional to extreme drought...woohoo

Raleigh and other parts of NC are in really bad shape.

Reviving this old thread... I'm at it again, I can't seem to help myself. Or maybe I just get *reaaally* bored this time of year with nothing to do in the garden.

I have collected more of Phyllostachys aurea to use as a screen in the back of my yard along my back fence. Now that they've constructed the new homes, despite the woods between, it's something I want to block out.

At first I was going to just stick it in the ground, let it do it's thing. Then I thought about it... knew what many of you would say, and decided I was better digging the trench and putting in a rhizome barrier. So now I have a 47' by 3' hole to dig, 2 feet deep. That should keep me busy until Spring, and seriously make my neighbor wonder what the heck I'm doing (he can see right over the lower half of my fence).

Most places say 30mil plastic is more than strong enough, so I'm confident that's fine for this smaller bamboo. If it was a giant Timber Bamboo, I'd probably go with 40-60mil thickness.

Real question is... I don't know what height to use. In the area I'm planting it, in the 'woods' I have about 6" of black top soil and then under that it's all sand for the next foot and a half. At about 24" down I hit a gravel-like sandy material which is a real pain to try and dig into. So at the moment, I'm going with the sites that suggest a 24" height barrier that's 30mil thickness. My next option, for a significantly higher price, is 40mil at 30" tall. The thicker this gets the harder it'll be to manage once I try and install it. Plus, despite my sandy soil, I just cannot believe those rhizomes would dip over a foot into the sandy soil, hit that rocky stuff, and then pop back up on the other side. Every time I dig one up, it's no more than 6-8" under the ground. Still, with my sandy soil, I want to be safe. Do you all think 24" is enough, or should I consider the 30"?

Just throwing this all out there for any thoughts or suggestions you guys have. I may even dig the pit to cover the entire back fence, which is about 67ft total. I'll wait until I get this first 47ft dug first... I got further along in a half day yesterday than I figured I would (I cannot believe how much dirt comes out of a 2ft deep hole, wow).

Thanks everyone. I'm also about 99% confident on the ID now, so that's helped a lot.

-John

Here's a photo of Tori holding it after we brought more home on Saturday. 18' of Bamboo on top of the Escape was quite humorous, especially coming over the dam. Next time I think I'm just gonna get my parents tractor trailer, will make it easier.

This message was edited Jan 11, 2010 3:59 PM

You might want to rent a ditch witch. I think they can dig a hole the size you want. If not you'll be digging for days on end I think. I know back yard is filled with pine roots and it would take me forever to dig a trench like that by hand.

I'll look into that, it certainly would help. Any idea how much rental rates for those are? Only thing that might cause problems is that my area is only about 3' wide, I'd have to cut the tench along the fence first, and then I'm worried I might cave that back in when digging the inside trench towards the house. I might could keep the wheel far enough away though.

Day 1

Got a little bit further on Day 2, though digging in the dark, in the roots now, is a bear. Not to mention I'm sure it increases the creepy factor of digging a hole in the dark. But I'm bound and determined to get this done this month. Though today Victoria told me she does want to go up the hill and include the other 20' or so - ugh. Maybe I'll let her dig that part ;)

Oh wow, that's a lot of digging!!!

I think you are going to have enough work to do without worrying too much about anyone else's opinion, pretty impressive amount of work.

Since the last time I posted on this thread, I dug up my patch of bamboo. It looked good but went from well-behaved to invasive nightmare almost overnight and had to be dealt with. It was very difficult to remove, but I think it would have been soooo much harder if we had better soil, the clay did seem to restrict the growth at the bottom of the root ball. The runners, howerever, had no trouble creeping 5-10 feet or so in all directions thru the clay, what a mess. It still pops up in the neighbor's yard, though I thought we had gotten it all out.

....if only I had a neighbor that liked to dig as much as you do, keonikale! LOL!! You'll have some time before the bamboo runs all over, so you don't have to kill yourself with all the barrier at once, although I am sure you want to get it over with. I wish you luck, it will look really nice

Looks like you're making decent progress. I don't know how much it is to rent a ditch witch but I think it would work even if the ditch filled back in. The dirt and roots would be all chopped so it would be easy to dig out.

Thanks Tropicanna. Regarding your bamboo, I've read that can happen if the bamboo feels is "conditions" for growth have changed. That's the key reason I decided on the barrier, I'm taking it from an area that's fairly out in the open, and putting it sorta under some tree canopy in the back of my yard. I suspect it's going to run like crazy once it's established.

Core, I talked with my dad about the ditch witch since I knew he'd rented them before for piping, etc around their house. He said I'd have trouble getting within 1-2' of the fence though, and I'm literally right up against the fence. So while it would probably dig my outter trench, the inner trench would be impossible I think. That conversation with him also made me realize I'm literally digging out one side of my fence, so I had to put braces on today to help with support. Don't even ask how many times we knocked our heads into those. I think Tori is seeing stars still :)

Day 3 and all said and done, Victoria and I have dug out 31 feet. The trench is almost exactly three feet wide, and we're trying to stick to 24" deep, if not more in places. This is hard work, but it's going A LOT faster than I thought it would. She and I both are a little OCD, so that's probably why this is getting done so fast, LOL.

Another shot. About 13' on the upper side, and 12' on the bottom side to go. That's IF we do the upper side, but I think we will. At least until we run into the trees in the way.

43' dug out now, about 14 more feet to go. Only the 10' stretch with all the roots was really horrible. The 2-3 inches of rain forecast for this weekend might put a damper on things, I'd hoped to finish up over the weekend. I'll get up early tomorrow and do as much as I can before the storm moves in. This has been a fun project all things considered - I haven't felt this in shape in a while. Hope to order my barrier next week too; I'm ready to get that thing in the ground. Then I get to move all the dirt again, lol.

A lot easier to fill it back in also you'll know you are almost done. You knocked that out in short time.

Youth has many benefits. ;-)

I think my age is slowly starting to catch up to me... I don't seem to remember aching like this a few years ago and I'm completely exhausted after today. My parents like to remind me I've seen nothing yet ;)

We did finish the trench today, total circumference of 126ft at a depth of 30 inches. Just hoping the rain doesn't cause me any trouble tonight - up to 2.5" in a 24hr period has been forecast. It'll be another week before the rhizome barrier gets here from Oregon; they had the best price I could find online.

If everything works out with the transplanting the last week of January (providing it doesn't rain or isn't frigid again) - I should have this done by the first of February. Then all that'll be left is to mulch sometime around March.

We've also been making a "wish-list" of other bamboo we might add into this area. Any of you have any experience with any of these below? I know some of them are quite large, but I'm in the experimenting mood since I went with the extra thickness and height.

Phyllostachys vivax (Chinese Timber)
Phyllostachys nigra ("Black Bamboo")
Phyllostachys aureosulcata 'Aureocaulis' (Golden Crookstem bamboo)
Bambusa multiplex ('Alphonse Karr')
Phyllostachys iridescens

Wish we could grow Buddha Belly here, but I think it'd die in a cold snap. Still waiting for my clumpers, Bambusa multiplex (Willowy) and Thamnocalamus tessellatus to actually do much of anything. The Willowy at least seems to be growing pretty quick.

Another shot of today's finished work.