Has anyone heard how the bamboos at Kimmei fared after their brutal winter this year? I would be interestimg to hear which ones fared well. Any Dutch forumists out there?

This was a posting on the French forum on damage in Saint Suplice after -15c though later he mentions -23c:

In order of cold resistance:

Donc par ordre de ceux qui ont le mieux résisté :
1- Bissetii
2- Holochrysa et atrovaginata (mais situation plus protégée près des maisons)
3- Spectabilis, Nuda, Okuboi, rufa
4- murielae
5- nigras, aureocaulis, vivax
6- Fastuosa
7- Shangai 3
8- Dulcis
...


Defoliated:
Tous les autres sont en foin ou ont complètement perdu leurs feuilles, du plus défeuillé au plus feuillé :
1- Chimonobambusas
2- yushania maculata
3- Jiuzhaigous
4- Chusquea gigantea,
5- Kimmei, Edulis
...


Protected with fabric the base is leafing out.
Pour le C.Culeou, la protection avec la toile et petite capote ont bien servies, le pied est bien feuillé

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johnw coastal Nova Scotia

Funny you should ask, I have a thread on the French forum asking that very question, it is in the 'English' forum on the 2nd page of the cold hardiness thread.

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Brad Salmon, zone 5b/6 Southern Indiana
Winters -20 to -25C. Summers 30 to 35C , humid. 115 cm annual precipitation, frost free from May through early October. 259.3 meters elevation. Growing 150+ species. http://www.needmorebamboo.com/

Brad - I don't think I can view the English section under Bamboo Discussions without becoming a member. Did you get any responses?

I suppose I could drop Jos an email....but he is a busy man.

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johnw coastal Nova Scotia

I got a partial answer but I would like Jos to write up something, there were several photos pasted into a reply to my question and those showed some damage and this link was included but I have not viewed it due to heavy photos so I'm not sure what it shows.

http://lesbambous.fr/forum/viewtopic.ph ... lit=kimmei

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Brad Salmon, zone 5b/6 Southern Indiana
Winters -20 to -25C. Summers 30 to 35C , humid. 115 cm annual precipitation, frost free from May through early October. 259.3 meters elevation. Growing 150+ species. http://www.needmorebamboo.com/

Brad - The link does not show your query and is difficult to follow as some of the photos are hidden and most are unlabelled. So confusing for me to figure out to which photo they are referring. P. kwangsiensis (the non-flowering second clone) seems to get high marks along with P. prominens though the latter they say "shown in the photo with lulu and with some black spots from the cold" presumably on the culms. Also hard to tell where Koen's garden ends and Kimmei starts. You will have an easier time of it having been to Kimmei and able to recognize all those species.

It would be great for Jos to do an article. If any easier for him or you I can get it quickly translated by Dutch or Blegian friends here or over there.

johnw

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johnw coastal Nova Scotia

John, I emailed Jos and he says he will try to find time to answer my questions about his plants and last winter so I'll post the info once he gets the time for that.

He did say that his prominens was killed to the ground so that post here about it's hardiness may well be inaccurate and the quest for the 5a bamboo continues.

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Brad Salmon, zone 5b/6 Southern Indiana
Winters -20 to -25C. Summers 30 to 35C , humid. 115 cm annual precipitation, frost free from May through early October. 259.3 meters elevation. Growing 150+ species. http://www.needmorebamboo.com/

the problem in north of europe this winter is that the winter has been extremly mild till the 20 of january and then had a quick drop of the temperature till - 20 degrees celcius. so the problem this year was not only the cold but the way it came. till the 20 of january, all the phyllo were still very active.

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Elemento Bambù on facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001852588023

Not only in north of Europe, but we had similar weather in central Europe, too. I lost 10 kinds of bamboo. It was the worst winter for bamboo plants what i can remember.

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I am engaged in pages about hardy bamboos in Czech language - http://bambusy.info/.

Wufeng - Can you tell us which ten bamboos you lost after such a winter?

johnw

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johnw coastal Nova Scotia

This loss of Bamboo as sad as it is does not give a true clue to hardiness in a normal year. When Bamboos cannot prepare for cold they die or suffer damage to a much greater degree than one would expect. Markj has gone through this a few times, warm mild Fall then a sudden cold snap and the damage is extensive. Normal decent into cold and even extreme cold periods are ok.
Best Wishes
Steve

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Always experimenting to get Timber Bamboos Timber size

Steve - Let's hope that's the case with P. prominens. Back about 6-8 years ago we had no sign of winter until the last week of January, mind you it was not warm just not really cold up till that point. Then it got cold, not really cold but winter arrived without warning with a few weeks of below freezing temps. Things like Hellebores in the ground were fine but ones in a cold frame that were slightly advanced (leaves starting to just flush) before the arrival of the cold were absolutely decimated.

I wonder how kwangsiensis fared Europe especially in central Europe.

johnw

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johnw coastal Nova Scotia

I lost:

Phyllostachys iridescens

Phyllostachys Shanghai 3

Phyllostachys dulcis Hummel-KEW

Phyllostachys prominens

Phyllostachys nigra Megurochiku

Phyllostachys nigra henonis

Phyllostachys vivax one of two green clones i had

Phyllostachys vivax Huanwenzhu-inversa

Phyllostachys kwangsiensis is death too, but i dont know if it is caused by frost or die after flowering.

Others Phyllostachys kinds with similar hardiness were top killed, but have recovered in may and june. Most of them has only one stem.



For normal winter not, but for me it is good confirmation about total hardiness these kinds. I lost only weaker kinds, nothink is surprise for me. In normal winter these kinds have often leaves damaged, sometimes partially stems and branches were frozen.

For big bamboos in my locality 6 - Prague hardiness info:

Full hardy atrovaginata and parvifolia - normal winter evergreen

90% hardy Phyllostachys vivax Shanghai - normal winter 10%- 30% leaves damaged

Semi hardy - normal winter with 30%-100% leaves damaged, partially stems and branches (it is different in different winters)

Phyllostachys vivax Mcclure
Phyllostachys vivax aureocaulis
Phyllostachys kwangsiensis - old one
Phyllostachys vivax Huanwenzhu
Phyllostachys vivax Huanwenzhu-inversa
Phyllostachys nigra henonis
Phyllostachys nigra Boryana (holand clone)
Phyllostachys nigra Megurochicu
Phyllostachy iridescens
Phyllostachys Shanghai 3

Very little hardy - often stems damaged
Phyllostachys prominens
Phyllostachys acuta

In observation I have Phyllostachys dulcis and Phyllostachys tianmuensis. It seams that dulcis will be semi hardy here but tianmuensis looks good and i think will be close to the Phyllostachys vivax Shanghai.

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I am engaged in pages about hardy bamboos in Czech language - http://bambusy.info/.

Here are some of the notes that Jos sent me, they were mainly specific to some species that I had asked about:

When I arrived back from India in the middle of January my bananas were
still green. Till the beginning of February it was one of the warmest
winters we had. Then in the night of 3 till 4 February there was expected
minus 12 Celsius. In that evening some powder snow covered most of Holland
and because the air was very dry the temperature dropped in Valkenswaard
till minus 18/19 Celsius. In the north of Holland is was nearly minus 23
Celsius. Next days it was clear with full sun. It stayed cold for two weeks
but I think most of the damage was done in the first night.

Parvifolia had barely any damage and is producing shoots from 7 cm now

prominens is one of the earliest to produce shoots in the spring
and it was in already in a spring mood. It died back to the ground. New
shoots till 3-4 meters

atrovaginata the same as Parvifolia

Shanghai 3 my plant was not in a good condition and died back to the ground.
By the neighbors 200 meters away it was more sheltered and only had some
leave damage.

Varioauriculata survived this winter well in my
garden.

Pl. maculata suffered a bit.

Some KR types survived well in my
garden.
(KR 6438 (Grex) and KR 5913 (Als F. grossa?)

For all Semiarundinaria this winter was bad and there was a 80% loss.


None of my eucalyptus survived but my 2 big palms did because I gave them
shelter.

As stated above the sudden onset after unusually mild temps was the undoing.

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Brad Salmon, zone 5b/6 Southern Indiana
Winters -20 to -25C. Summers 30 to 35C , humid. 115 cm annual precipitation, frost free from May through early October. 259.3 meters elevation. Growing 150+ species. http://www.needmorebamboo.com/

Brad & Wufeng - Thanks so much to you both (Jos too!) for this invaluable information. I do hope many of these injured bamboos will regrow especially those rarities that are so difficult to import and establish. It is always sad to hear of such disasters happening to those who have devoted themselves so tirelessly to bamboos. I trust customers will be understanding and things will quickly get back to normal after this nasty bump in the road.

This is the sort of information we truly need.

I wonder what reports from northern Holland where they experienced -23c will reveal.

johnw

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johnw coastal Nova Scotia

' much appreciated information!

Out of curiosity, did the Ph. virella there fare any differently than the parvifolia?