Fargesia Species, Blue Fountain Bamboo, Hardy Blue Bamboo, Subalpine Bamboo

This is a wonderful plant, both beautiful and well-behaved. Unlike most bamboos, which have earned a bad reputation for running, Fargesia...Read More species form clumps which expand only very slowly. No root barriers are required.

This species is hardy and evergreen to Z5a, and performs best with protection from afternoon sun. Unlike most bamboos, it prefers light shade, and tolerates heavy shade. It does not perform well in hot summer climates like that of the southeastern US.

The habit is gracefully vase-shaped, fountainlike, with the outermost culms usually tending to bend almost to the ground under the weight of their foliage. F. nitida and F. murielae are very similar in appearance. The common names are not commonly used.

Bamboos are monocarpic---they die shortly after flowering. With bamboos, this happens only every hundred years or so, and somehow all members of a species all over the world tend to go to flower within a few years of each other. That happened with this species between 2002 and 2008.

Currently, growers are propagating the new generation from seed and selecting cultivars as these seedlings show their distinctive qualities.

Some nurseries may still be selling the old cultivars, which were selected a century ago and are likely to be short-lived. Most are selling seedlings of the new generation, which should be good for another century. It pays to make sure you know which you are purchasing.

I have done gardening in the yard of my biggest customer in southeast Pennsylvania in USDA Zone 6b for ten years now, and she has a good ...Read Morespecimen in part-shade that has been a big clump, spreading very little, all this time with no problems. I even dug up a section of the plant up and planted it in a big pot for her back deck and it is also doing well. If anyone wants a temperate species bamboo, this one is pretty and it is good and stays basically neat and clean. It usually gets to about 10 to 15 ft high in landscapes. It is cold hardy to USDA Zone 5a according to a few sources. It does need moist soil, not liking drought, and it is good to keep it out of strong winds. Part-shade will keep it from growing as thick as in full sun, as I have seen photos of thick specimens growing too thickly by themselves without pruning.

I don't know why the Plant Files have this listed as only hardy to Zone 7b, since I've had it in the ground here in Greencastle, PA since...Read More 2005 with absolutely no protection (other than a hardware cloth fence around it to keep the local rabbits from eating it to death during the winter) and it sails through with no problems, despite all but last winter having temps get below 0 degrees Fahrenheit at least once per winter (even then it got down to something like 5 degrees one night).

The bamboo DOES look a bit raggedy by the end of February, but once temperatures warm up a bit, it greens right up again. Lovely and non-spreading, too! I'm definitely taking this one with me when I move.

An elegant Bamboo with small leaves and dark purple green canes.