Can anyone ID this bamboo at the National Arboretum?

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Peter Knop
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Re: Can anyone ID this bamboo at the National Arboretum?

Post by Peter Knop »

Moso for sure. I actually got much of my early collection from these groves. They had moso (not the best clone as less winter hardy than others), castillion, Robert Young, nigra - but a terrible variety - punctata, which is VERY floppy, lots of winter damage. Have not been back for a while, but at the time they were bringing in some nice fargesias - need to go back and see how they are doing.
Unfortunately they did not have a bamboo expert on staff and a couple of people who came in to ID some of their stuff were not that knowledgeable. Seems like the fact that they now have new name tags says they have got some extra help.
The groves of the timber bamboos are very worth seeing (as of course is the entire arboretum).
Note: for those interested in saving money, each year they clean up their groves and throw the stuff away - hundreds of plants, mainly rhizome, but also some plants. They used to give it away, and were always happy to have volunteers help them with the work of cleaning up. Nice payday to take what they throw away back to one's garden!
For anyone interested in getting our newsletter (free), drop an email to We talk plants,
bamboo, xeric gardens, and anything else to do with nature and the plant world, along with community garden stuff (we have the largest community garden in the US here in Chantilly, Va).
mshaffer
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Re: Can anyone ID this bamboo at the National Arboretum?

Post by mshaffer »

Some pictures I took today.
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mshaffer
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Re: Can anyone ID this bamboo at the National Arboretum?

Post by mshaffer »

more
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mshaffer
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Re: Can anyone ID this bamboo at the National Arboretum?

Post by mshaffer »

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needmore
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Re: Can anyone ID this bamboo at the National Arboretum?

Post by needmore »

Nice pictures, did you figure out what the brown stuff was in the G Earth photo?
Brad Salmon, zone 12B Kea'au, HI
http://www.needmorebamboo.com
mshaffer
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Re: Can anyone ID this bamboo at the National Arboretum?

Post by mshaffer »

Yes, it was the Moso grove that was top-killed. There was no sign of the old culms, except a bunch of stumps. I guess it was winter storm "Neptune" that did the damage. Glad I covered mine with an enormous 60x40 foot tarp.
mshaffer
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Re: Can anyone ID this bamboo at the National Arboretum?

Post by mshaffer »

I was surprised how nice the Robert Young bamboo looked. I didn't see any broken culms, even though mine always breaks when we get snow. Maybe they remove the broken culms or something.
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