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Clumping in the Columbia River Gorge

Posted: Thu May 07, 2020 5:02 pm
by daschmitz0
Hello -

I'm a newbie and have been reading everything I can find (including some old threads here) on the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon (Zone 7b according to USDA, 3a according to Sunset Magazine). Ideally I would like to go with a clumping bamboo to make a dense screen but that seems to be a difficult choice from what I'm reading. I'm just wondering if anyone here has any experience or suggestions on (ideally) a clumping for this type of environment.

Where I'm at we have winters that occasionally get snow and some windy summers, occasionally getting into the 90s (F˚) in July & Aug. The location I have available, unfortunately, isn't very sheltered from the wind and doesn't have much shade. Far from ideal I realize but I wondering what type (if any) people might suggest.

These were what I came up with so far:

Chusquea culeou - ‘Caña Prieta'
Thamnocalamus Tessellatus
Fargesia robusta - Scabrida
Fargesia robusta -‘Campbell'


Thanks,

-Dave

Re: Clumping in the Columbia River Gorge

Posted: Fri May 08, 2020 5:47 pm
by dependable
Fargesia robusta should be OK if it stays above 5F or so, colder than that it is killed to ground with very slow recovery. F rufra, F denudata & F nitida are even more cold hardy. Rufra probably best candidate of the three I listed for screen. I'm not familiar with the other two you listed, perhaps someone else is.

Re: Clumping in the Columbia River Gorge

Posted: Sun May 10, 2020 8:36 pm
by Alan_L
Problem with F. rufa is that it is not a tall plant -- maybe 7-8' tall. Not sure if that's what you want for a privacy screen.

Re: Clumping in the Columbia River Gorge

Posted: Mon May 11, 2020 3:20 am
by daschmitz0
I'm not looking for anything too tall.12-15ft would be ideal but I realize my choices are very limited for clumping in this region so I'll take what I can get at this point.

I've been told the Fargesia don't care too much for full sun. I'll have irrigation on them if that helps. I've read Chusquea deal better with the sun and the same with the Thamnocalamus Tessellatus but it's not quite as hardy. Again from what I've read.

Thanks for the replies so far. I really appreciate it.

Re: Clumping in the Columbia River Gorge

Posted: Mon May 11, 2020 1:01 pm
by dependable
I have one 'green panda' that is up to 9ft high, 10 ft wide, but I get your point. That one is in ideal semi sheltered conditions too. For a reliable tall screen, a runner would be best choice. P bissetti or aurosulcata most likely candidates.

Re: Clumping in the Columbia River Gorge

Posted: Mon May 11, 2020 9:34 pm
by wind-borne
I would be cautious about 'Cana Prieta' as there are reports of blooming last year at Tradewinds in Gold Beach, OR.
We only get a handful of hot dry days but Scabrida and robusta do not like them so unsure of what a steady dose would be like.
Tessallatus here is very sun/wind resistant but you are in a colder zone on the edge of its hardiness.
Here are a couple pictures of that bamboo right on HWY 101 in a very exposed location. The pictures on Bamboo Garden show arching culms, these are stiffly upright. Fresh foliage is not yet present.
I've been watching this bamboo for about 6 years and little if any care is given.
We have strong winds daily in summer but with a lot of humidity off the ocean not dry like the Gorge.

Re: Clumping in the Columbia River Gorge

Posted: Tue May 12, 2020 11:35 am
by dependable
daschmitz0 wrote: I've been told the Fargesia don't care too much for full sun. I'll have irrigation on them if that helps.
I had a F robusta, 'green screen' if I recall, that was in full sun and up over 10 ft tall. Seemed happy in sun, with no leaf curl like some other Fargesias. However, it was killed to ground in an abnormally cold freeze event, and was only coming up after that as a circle of shoots around original root base, so I dug it out.

I had another one that I did not remove, slightly smaller and in more sheltered spot, that came back OK eventually, but it took 7-8 years, too long to wait if it was needed as screen.

Re: Clumping in the Columbia River Gorge

Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2020 10:48 pm
by ShmuBamboo
In Hood River you are up against cold temps in winter with the strong east wind. For that reason Chusquea culeou will not do well there. I had one here for some years but then a 15 degree winter chill came and did it in. My brother has one in the ground in Hillsboro that is hanging on, but you really need to live on the Oregon coast to grow those. RKR has (or had) a beautiful row of them in Coquille, OR. Eugene had a super cold spell hit them 7 years with -10 F temps. Then the ice storm hit them 3 years ago and the entire power grid there was knocked flat. Those winters pretty much wiped out every bamboo there but the most cold tolerant ones. My friends in Springfield had to shut down their nursery (McKenzie Valley Bamboo) for a year, as pretty much everything there was top killed. I sold a lot of boos to people in the Eugene area after those years.

Hood River will get super cold in winter about every 10 years or so. My coldest reading here has been +7 F. I am on the west side of the cascades and just out of the gorge. But with cold high and dry east winds, that did in a lot of my semi-cold tolerant bamboos, including Castillon and all the other Phy. bam. species, my Chusqueas, and the Chimanobambusas. I had a lot of top kill and the following year my boos here were all pretty ratty. The Fargesias, Phy. Nuda, all the Phy. nigras, Phy. vivax, Phy. aureosulcatas, and Phy. atrovaginata came back pretty fast. I had one Phy. vivax aureocaulis revert to the green form. The aureas came back but took longer, as did the Semiarundinarias and Moso. So your best bets are here listed in the zone 5 section in the Bamboo Garden list:

http://www.bamboogarden.com/cold%20hardy%20bamboo.html