I was sold this as a fargesia, is it?

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Tarzanus
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Re: I was sold this as a fargesia, is it?

Post by Tarzanus »

Fargesia robusta 'Campbell' is taller version and Fargesia robusta 'Wolong' has larger leaves, but not nearly as large as Pseudosasa japonica. I guess you could miss ID very young plant, but when it starts branching out, you can't miss. Also, culm sheath of Pseudosasa is more persistent and will stay quite some time attached to the culm, on Fargesia robusta, it will fall down almost immediately after the sheath dries.
johnw
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Re: I was sold this as a fargesia, is it?

Post by johnw »

I have to agree with everyone on the Pseudosasa i.d., take the seller keys to the Fargesias/Pseudosasas and a leaf and tell him to cross-check the measurements and explain why he still thinks it's a Fargesia. You need a refund in cash.

Meanwhile I also agree the pond liner is far too close to where you'd plant robusta 'Campbell' and it could easily poke through. In fact I'd be wary of most bamboos that close; eventually in 5-10 years even nitida or murieliae would ge getting hazardously close and with the threat of puncture imminent.
johnw coastal Nova Scotia
oobmab
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Re: I was sold this as a fargesia, is it?

Post by oobmab »

Whatever you decide to plant, you could protect the pond liner by putting in another barrier between it and the bamboo. You could take a plastic 55-gallon barrel, cut top and bottom off, then cut barrel body into 3 or 4 pieces from top to bottom. Using a jig saw, this is easy. Then pop rivet the pieces together (for joint compression) and bury the whole thing at an angle so that rhizomes will hit its curved surface and be forced upward. There is no way boo rhizome will penetrate angled, thick HDPE. And it will last forever underground. You should be able to get approx. 7' (barrel cut into thirds) or 10' (barrel cut into quarters) of barrier for the cost of one barrel. I have gotten them free before at a soda bottling plant.
mpagri
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Re: I was sold this as a fargesia, is it?

Post by mpagri »

I exchanged the P. japonica for a green laceleaf maple and a nice black pine. Pretty happy with that end result. I bought two clumps of F. rufa (is this the same as F. dracocephala 'rufa'?) from a different nursery.

moriphen, your F. robusta, along with the rest of the garden area, looks fantastic thanks for posting it.

oobmab, I def have extra barrels, that sounds like a great idea and very doable, at least after I look into what pop rivets mean. I think I will do that, I prob could have kept the P. japonica with the barrel barrier but I think I like the look and the hardiness of Rufa more.

Thanks all for your replies and advice, I have a lot of planting to do this weekend, will post a follow up pic.
oobmab
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Re: I was sold this as a fargesia, is it?

Post by oobmab »

mpagri wrote: oobmab, I def have extra barrels, that sounds like a great idea and very doable, at least after I look into what pop rivets mean. I think I will do that, I prob could have kept the P. japonica with the barrel barrier but I think I like the look and the hardiness of Rufa more.
Pop rivet

Image

Pop rivet gun

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End result

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I would recommend stainless or plastic pop rivets. Click > Harbor Freight tools has everything you need (except maybe stainless rivets; Harbor Freight calls plastic rivets POM). Otherwise, Lowes (except they probably don't have plastic rivets).
Last edited by oobmab on Thu May 15, 2014 6:56 pm, edited 3 times in total.
mpagri
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Re: I was sold this as a fargesia, is it?

Post by mpagri »

Would just burying two round open ended halves of a 55g barrel, one for each clump, be enough?
oobmab
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Re: I was sold this as a fargesia, is it?

Post by oobmab »

mpagri wrote:Would just burying two round open ended halves of a 55g barrel, one for each clump, be enough?
Don't see why that wouldn't work. You would get more depth that way; just would require more barrels. Just make sure to cut the barrels lengthwise so that the curvature of the barrel works in your favor.

Image

Personally, I would cut off the ends and overlap the sections for better compression when pop riveting. Don't want a rhizome to slip between two sections. In the picture below, imagine the ends cut off and the sections pop riveted together. Then buried 90 degrees (or so) to what is shown in the picture with concave side towards bamboo.

Image

Also, you want a continuous barrier; not one for each clump.
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