Fargesia Rufa by BambooSelect

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Jonathan Poston
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RE: Fargesia Rufa by BambooSelect

Post by Jonathan Poston »

Bamboomoon wrote,
Noticed that your Spectabilis (the same plant you have used with your forum posts?) has shoots that are extremely tight. My Spectabilis only gets early day sun which moves behind the house at about 2 o'clock. I'm guessing that's why the shoots are about 7 inches apart, in contrast to the plant in your picture. I'm guessing your plant gets all day sun ...
To be honest I would have thought it works the other way around. In other words less sun=more tightly packed with more sun=wider-spaced culms. A sunnier position for a Phyllostachys usually results in more wandering. My Spectabilis started out in a fairly sunny position with morning thru afternoon sun in 2003, but as they've grown the canopy of culms and blades have shielded the ground so that it only receives a little morning sun. I presume this has limited the wandering. My two plants are planted near a boundary fence and each autumn I've driven a spade around the stands to limit growth further.

Thanks again for the kind commments re the garden.
Bamboomoon
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RE: Fargesia Rufa by BambooSelect

Post by Bamboomoon »

You may be right, Jonathon, but I don't know how else to explain what I'm observing. The rhizomes on my Spectabilis are running toward the sun (the sun that disappears over the house). The new, loosely spaced canes coming out of those rhizomes have put out a good 6 feet in height over last year's growth, which makes me think they are reaching for that disappearing sun, and perhaps being cautious about the number of canes sent up. Three new shoots have aborted already, and our three hottest months in this hemisphere (at about the same latitude as London or Liverpool) I believe, are June, July & August. So I'll be curious to see what this plant does next. If it has a second shooting season, I'm sending it to college.
BambooMoon
zone 8b
Snohomish, Wa
Bamboomoon
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RE: Fargesia Rufa by BambooSelect

Post by Bamboomoon »

P.S. I also suspect that root pruning every year might encourage a tight grouping.
BambooMoon
zone 8b
Snohomish, Wa
Jonathan Poston
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Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 11:08 am
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Location: Eastbourne, Sussex coast,
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RE: Fargesia Rufa by BambooSelect

Post by Jonathan Poston »

P.S. I also suspect that root pruning every year might encourage a tight grouping.
I agree it will encourage that, it is not a good lon-term practise either as the furthest shoots are often the most healthy, largest and have more healthy rhizome.
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