Hi again.

This is my first winter with bamboo.

I planted 2 or 3 gallon yellow grooves, harbin inversas, and blacks late spring. I live in zone 6b/7a.

The harbin inversa and yellow groove appear completely unfazed by winter. In fact all of the bamboo have continued to grow new leaves all winter. The black is getting quite a bit of wind burn now, but the culms are still black.

The winter has certainly been mild, but we had a week or so where the high temp didn't get out of the 20s and the low was probably in the low teens. It's been very windy.

Question: Is it normal for these bamboo to continue to grow new leaves in this context?

Thanks,

jp

Normally, it is not. Groves will often shed some leaves in fall. If your plants are off cycle because the were recently indoors, that might explain it. Once they have been in ground a full season, they should follow normal patterns.

I cant say if thats normal or not for sure. I would assume that during a mild winter it may let them grow a bit, slowly mind you. Im only thinking that, because my Fargesia Rufa, put out a few branches while completely buried for the winter (I have to protect them here). I know this because the tops and ends of the branches had very, very light green, weakish growth.

That is a guess though...

The harbin inversa are the ones really putting out new leaves, although even the black are doing it to a lesser extent. I planted the harbins in April.

On his website Brad raves about the inversas, and so far I'm really impressed by them. Does anyone else have experience with them?

jp

Some of the leaves on my Fargesia murielae unfolded during the winter while it was warm. New leaf blades that would normally appear after leaf unfolds did not appear. Phyllostachys aurea is exactly the same as it was the first day we've had our first frost. Well,It's too early to say how will it look like after cold front passes. At the moment everything is frozen.

I think that temperatures around 50F (10C) could allow them to grow sloooowly even during their dormancy cycle.