Growing Otatea in uk

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ARWARE
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Growing Otatea in uk

Post by ARWARE »

Does anyone have any experience in growing otatea varieties outside in the uk?? I’ve got a beautiful specimen growing inside in a pot but too afraid to plant it out.
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needmore
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Re: Growing Otatea in uk

Post by needmore »

Greetings, I can't speak to UK bamboo growth but I did have an Otataea glauca drop dead on me here. It was a very robust plant with lots of new rhizome growth but one night with a a few hours of freeze around 29F 2-3 hours and it died almost immediately. It is hard for me to believe this guy would drop dead first freeze so I suspect that there was something else going on with this plant but it was healthy and vibrant going into that night. I wondered if the soil was too wet and that few hours of freeze in wet soil was too much. It was fully dead, never made a shoot nor leaf, when unpotted a few months later it has many fat rhizomes and buds that all just froze I guess.

It was so beautiful I considered getting another and if I do I will keep the buggah dry in winter.
Brad Salmon, zone 12B Kea'au, HI
http://www.needmorebamboo.com
ARWARE
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Location: Uk

Re: Growing Otatea in uk

Post by ARWARE »

needmore wrote:Greetings, I can't speak to UK bamboo growth but I did have an Otataea glauca drop dead on me here. It was a very robust plant with lots of new rhizome growth but one night with a a few hours of freeze around 29F 2-3 hours and it died almost immediately. It is hard for me to believe this guy would drop dead first freeze so I suspect that there was something else going on with this plant but it was healthy and vibrant going into that night. I wondered if the soil was too wet and that few hours of freeze in wet soil was too much. It was fully dead, never made a shoot nor leaf, when unpotted a few months later it has many fat rhizomes and buds that all just froze I guess.

It was so beautiful I considered getting another and if I do I will keep the buggah dry in winter.
Thanks for the reply! It sounds a bit risky to me.. I had this one shipped over from South America many years ago so maybe I’ll split it next year and try some outside, at least then if it dies I won’t lose the whole plant!
Chris S
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Location: SE UK 400ft Zone 8/7 Low usually 28F, -4C (-10, -12, -14, -1, -6C last 5); High 99F, 37C in 2019
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Re: Growing Otatea in uk

Post by Chris S »

I have lost 2 large potted plants suddenly in late winter, at or even just above freezing, in an unheated greenhouse, without any water-logging. I can keep them alive indoors through winter OK. If in the ground it would probably lose all above-ground growth, but you might just keep the rhizomes alive through winter outside in a sunny well-drained site, preferably near the south coast, if you mulch well. You could divide your plant, keep it all indoors this winter, and try a large division in the ground next winter, if you live in a warm part of the country.
Best considered as a plant for a bright, heated conservatory.
Chris
SE England
bamboo-identification.co.uk

Think globally, act locally
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