A nice bamboo scene

[Alan_L]

I really like this view of a part of my garden:



Ph. nigra is the tall bamboo, with Pleio. fortunei in front of it.

[johnw]

That's a beauty Alan! Which P. nigra is it? Is it bone hardy in St. Louis? I haven't tried any as I suspect it won't do in this climate.

I wonder how hardy Hibanobambusa is and if it would survive here. Might be as close as well get to P. nigra!

johnw

[Alan_L]

Nigra is marginally hardy here. Our mild winter let it size up nicely this year, but tarping the small culms to the ground did wonders the previous winter too.

Exposed in a normal winter here it defoliates at best.

[stevelau1911]

I don't think that a nigra of that size would still defoliate at 0F if you happened to column tarp it with a material that holds in heat such as overwintering blankets, or if you happened to string some christmas lights on it. I plan to keep tarping my marginal species which include Nigra. It looks like the size of your nigra is still OK to tarp to the ground, but it might require a couple of tent stakes.

[ShmuBamboo]

I live in zone 7b and my Phy. nigras did not defoliate at all down to 10 deg. F. here, and neither did my Hib. t. Shiroshimas. I have Bory, Henon, Megurochiku, Daikokuchiku, (giant black), standard nigra, and Punctada (banana peel). Nigra leaves will burn some from the tips back in winter below about 15 deg. F. here though. They drop those leaves in the late spring, and now thay all look great again.

[ghmerrill]

Looking REAL good Alan!

[Alicat59]

Beautiful!

[Jeff: Igor's Apprentice]

Very nice!

[stevelau1911]

If my P nigra continues growing at its regular pace, it should get up almost to that size by next year. It is still kind of shrubby now. I'm a bit surprised that the culms are already starting to turn black only 4-5 months after they started coming up.


Here's how mine looks.

[Sirius]

Alan,
You have a great looking garden!

[bamboothew]

Beautiful!

[pokenei]

Hm...I thought Nigra bamboo is supposed to be black. Did you clear all previous years' culms?

Looking nice. Agreed, but it will be much nicer without the distractions (i.e. bushes and trees in the background).

And if it's indeed a nigra, it will look very different next year when the culms turn black.

[Alan_L]

Pokenei: they're blackening as we speak. More photos here:

http://www.itsnotworkitsgardening.com/2 ... -flop.html