My neighbor's purple bamboo

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mountainbamboonut
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My neighbor's purple bamboo

Post by mountainbamboonut »

My neighbor down the street has a good sized purple bamboo (violescens). According to him, he saw the ABS publication reporting the largest diameter culms and put his calipers on it...he reports to have bigger diameter on one of his culms last year than what was reported by the ABS as largest diameter. ( I don't know if the one I'm holding is that culm but I just grabbed one for a photo--also should be noted that I have very large hands ) Since he doesn't have internet and just got a phone all of his bamboos are off the radar so to speak. I asked him why he doesn't submit it (being that it was the largest violescens per ABS) and he made an off-color comment about not caring about size contests etc. haha Anyhow thought you'd like to see his purple pictured here. I got a small division from it a year ago and I have like 5 good sized shoots coming up from it in a wine barrel. I am going to have to put it in the ground soon, or give out some divisions.
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craigs purple bamboo.jpg
craigs purple.jpg
Cooper12
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Re: My neighbor's purple bamboo

Post by Cooper12 »

is this your neighbor that sells Bamboo?
Jason Floyd
Hangtown Farms

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mountainbamboonut
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Re: My neighbor's purple bamboo

Post by mountainbamboonut »

It is indeed. Although he doesn't sell much given that he has no internet and doesn't advertise. I've referred him a lot of business but he is all word of mouth.
ShmuBamboo
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Re: My neighbor's purple bamboo

Post by ShmuBamboo »

I have seen Phy. violescens that size in Soquel, CA. I believe there are two types of bamboos called Phy. violescens; one is more brown in color and smaller, and one is more purple and larger. I have a specimen that I got from Doug King in Clackamas, OR and it is a fairly small bamboo. It is the brown and smaller type. It is also very cold sensitive, and grows about like a Phy. bambusoides here (not happy in this climate). BG sells a more vigorous type that gets to 30 feet and 2 inches in diameter. They say it goes down to 0 F. but the one I have would never survive that. 20 F. is about as low as mine wants to go. BG says that they have a weak culm variety. The ones I saw in Soquel were really tough and strong and not weak at all. Again, I believe that there are multiple types out there, or as Ned suggested to me once, they are just highly variable bamboos.

BTW: the ABS is not the end all to size and height when it comes to bamboo varieties. Paul, the owner of Bamboo and Koi Garden in West Linn, OR and I measured his black (Phy. nigra) bamboo a few years ago. They were 3" inches in diameter, larger than the 2" maximum that the ABS source list shows. We measured several culms with calipers and laughed about the list. He also has the largest size Moso that I have seen growing inland anywhere in the western US. He is on the Tualatin River though, so he does not get as cold as most of this area gets in winter months.
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mountainbamboonut
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Re: My neighbor's purple bamboo

Post by mountainbamboonut »

shmu, this kind is definitely the purple you described with weaker walled culms. It has to be topped here because it breaks with a snow load of any kind according to my neighbor. interesting point about the ABS not being the end all be all of culm diameter. I kind of figured since it would be hard to track a lot of people with huge bamboos that aren't interested in publicizing their groves etc.
ShmuBamboo
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Re: My neighbor's purple bamboo

Post by ShmuBamboo »

Some early accounts of Phy. violescens that I have seen list it as a Phy. bambusoides variety. While it seems to share the intolerance of cold that Phy. bambusoides do here, they are otherwise quite different. Vivax also has thin walled culms, and that is its only weakness in my view. When it snows here I go out and knock on the culms with a metal extension pole to get the snow off. Otherwise they will snap. I lost a few vivax culms this year in the high wind storms that we have had here. I also lost several pine tree and liquidambar tree tops this year as well. It was a warm winter here, but a windy one as well. I hope that my violescens comes around this year and puts up some nice size culms. It was hard hit last year in the Polar vortex cold and wind.

Also as for size and shape of bamboos, they seem to grow differently here in the wild west. Many types are bigger in variable microclimates. Also varietal sports or chimeras seem to be more common here.
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Nicholas
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Re: My neighbor's purple bamboo

Post by Nicholas »

ShmuBamboo wrote:Some early accounts of Phy. violescens that I have seen list it as a Phy. bambusoides variety. While it seems to share the intolerance of cold that Phy. bambusoides do here, they are otherwise quite different
Vaupel claims it is Phyllostachys praecox 'violascens' , even in bamboos of the world it is pointed out that it is doubtful it belongs to bambusoides.
ShmuBamboo
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Re: My neighbor's purple bamboo

Post by ShmuBamboo »

Unfortunately someone has posted a photo of it as Phy. bambusoides violascens on Wikipedia.
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Cooper12
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Re: My neighbor's purple bamboo

Post by Cooper12 »

its a nice looking Bamboo that I know
Jason Floyd
Hangtown Farms

Emmett Idaho
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mountainbamboonut
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Re: My neighbor's purple bamboo

Post by mountainbamboonut »

Shmu and Nicholas, you two play nice now. PS Shmu your bambusoides is not cold hardy? Mine sure is. In fact all of them up here are. It stays green through the winter and I'm at 3,100 ft. elevation roughly.

I hope you enjoyed seeing his large purple bamboo. Cheers.
Nicholas
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Re: My neighbor's purple bamboo

Post by Nicholas »

mountainbamboonut wrote:Shmu and Nicholas, you two play nice now.
I don't think Shmu was trying to start an argument here, he merely point out that the wikipedia article is wrong (btw if you look at the source they used for that article it also does not contain violascens as a cultivar ...) Wikipedia is a mess when it comes to more specialized information. I've been planning on making an account because there is another article (totally unrelated topic) I think is in dire need of some editing. But you know how these things go, especially now with spring coming up :P
Cooper12
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Re: My neighbor's purple bamboo

Post by Cooper12 »

Would you say Craigs Bamboo in that picture is close to 2 1/2" how tall would you say it is. Im curious as to seeing what the tallest timbers have been for him as well up in our Elevation Zone
Jason Floyd
Hangtown Farms

Emmett Idaho
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ShmuBamboo
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Re: My neighbor's purple bamboo

Post by ShmuBamboo »

mountainbamboonut wrote:Shmu and Nicholas, you two play nice now. PS Shmu your bambusoides is not cold hardy? Mine sure is. In fact all of them up here are. It stays green through the winter and I'm at 3,100 ft. elevation roughly.

I hope you enjoyed seeing his large purple bamboo. Cheers.
As Nick says, I was not starting a fight. Just pointing out inaccuracies on Wiki. I have posted some stuff there on Bamboos, especially to correct some errors on it being 'invasive', but most of what I have posted has been overwritten by others (and with the same incorrect information that I corrected).

As for cold, it got down to 7 F. here last year several times, with biting cold wind. My purple did not do well, nor did my Moso. I have never seen a large violascens outside of California.
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mountainbamboonut
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Re: My neighbor's purple bamboo

Post by mountainbamboonut »

Cooper the huge timbers on my street at his place are vivax, castillon( spelling ), and dulcis primarily, and the purple gets decent size as you saw up here too--but the others are huge here. His timbers have been in the ground for 10-18 years though. In fact one of his stands of vivax which has coke can sized culms was planted from a single rhizome he buried in the dirt almost 20 years ago. Moso doesn't get big where I'm at nor does Folsom Black size up to what it does down the hill from us in Folsom, CA.
Cooper12
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Re: My neighbor's purple bamboo

Post by Cooper12 »

mountainbamboonut wrote:Cooper the huge timbers on my street at his place are vivax, castillon( spelling ), and dulcis primarily, and the purple gets decent size as you saw up here too--but the others are huge here. His timbers have been in the ground for 10-18 years though. In fact one of his stands of vivax which has coke can sized culms was planted from a single rhizome he buried in the dirt almost 20 years ago. Moso doesn't get big where I'm at nor does Folsom Black size up to what it does down the hill from us in Folsom, CA.
My buddy Greg has some nice giant black in Placerville about 3" caliper and maybe 35 ft or so. He said Moso struggles as well. I think with Moso its having it in the right spot up here and not everyone has the best spot up here
Jason Floyd
Hangtown Farms

Emmett Idaho
Zone 7A
Potato country
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