Is that leaf from a holly tree? Hollies have yellowish roots.

By the way,does anyone know the final size at maturity of these borindas and their culm width?

Those young shoots seem strangely blunt.But interesting. The older culms also are a nice shade of green with a light and a dark ring at the nodes. Is it possible to see some pictures of the mature culms and also the way the branches are arranged? What's it like there at the moment?Any freezes yet? H...

First year in the ground and they haven't done badly considering the soil is chalky albeit with lots of added organic material.The summer was unusually hot at times, a couple of days in the low 30s which probably helped.With any luck next year will see more and bigger growth

Thanks for the update Tarzanus.How tall is your plant now,are those this years unbranched shoots at the top? And the colour on the culm sheath is very attractive.

They were sold as fargesia albocerea,papyrifera and yunnan. From the French graines de bambou website.I checked up on these and apparently they are a type of borinda ( Chris Stapleton discusses this internet seed on the bamboo indentification website).I sowed these into small pots in a propagator ba...

Thanks for the advice Tarzanus. I have read your blog and your experience with these Borindas. If we have another mild winter then they should be ok in my cold greenhouse. If it looks like it will get really cold, I may have to bring them into the house. By the way how has your Borinda done this year?

Back in the spring I started these seeds . I'm happy with their progress. https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8201/29415547800_05faa76666_k.jpg P5280180 by smifter2012 , on Flickr https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8284/29706531955_fd77a3d419_k.jpg P6230217 by smifter2012 , on Flickr Frogs like them https://c2...

I thought I would share some pictures of my not so futile experiment https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8296/29594815242_af10aa7e89_k.jpg P9150234 by smifter2012 , on Flickr https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8440/29670847466_31e37cd401_k.jpg P9150236 by smifter2012 , on Flickr https://c6.staticflickr.com/9/8...

That's a beauty!

I have seen finches (goldfinches if I remember correctly) doing this before on my bamboos. I'm not sure if they were eating them, pulling off the leaf sheaths, or what, but it certainly didn't defoliate them. I know that some of my plants, especially the ones in the planter boxes, seem to take a lo...

I guess it is possible, but I have not noticed birds eating bamboo leaves in any quantity. What is common with nigra is wind damage to upper culms. If they got 'fried' last winter they probably will not bud out in that part of the culm again. If something did eat them, and the culms ae otherwise he...

Does anybody have experience of this? I recently noticed that the tallest of this years culms on one of my nigras wasn't leafing out.On closer inspection it looks like the new leaf shoots have been removed. My guess is sparrows are doing it.(I could be wrong,but we do have lots around here) I realis...

Seaweed might be okay as an amendment if your soil has a low pH to begin with, but if you're in the neutral range and then increase salinity, you risk inhibiting microbial activity. If your soil is alive, your plants will thrive, so I'd be super careful with seaweed. I sure wouldn't pour sea water ...

Thanks for your thoughts on this.
I think a little experimentation is in order