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I wonder if this could be ID'd. It has been in the ground for over a decade and hasn't moved from a tight clump. The soil around the plant hasn't been improved and the house wall must cast something of a rain shadow.

I am not great with colors, but I would suggest Phyllostachys rubromarginata. Both the shoots and the general appearance of the plant are consistent with what I have seen.

From the gallery:

Rubro would be my guess as well, assuming it is a phyllostachys.

Why it is staying in one place? My P rubromarginata is not my fastest runner, but not that slow. Assuming it was not left in a container or something, and the soil around it is loose and friable, can only guess it was badly root bound before planted. I planted a row of P a aureocaulis once that I lazily did not unwrap the rhizomes that were tightly binding the plant pot shaped root ball, and they stayed in a fairly tight clumps many years, in fact, about 10, before it started to run like the other aureosulcata varieties. Was not that tight a clump though, but they were 10 gallon pots.

Thanks, Glen. I have been wanting to ID this plant for a while.

dependable wrote:Rubro would be my guess as well, assuming it is a phyllostachys.

It is definitely a Phyllostachys. There are the characteristic sulci or grooves. I guess it might be pruning that has kept the plant tight. I am told it was a division and not a container bought plant. Last year the owner of the plant tried to harvest garden canes from the current year's growth. I found that painful, and not only because I was offered a division.

dependable wrote:I planted a row of P a aureocaulis once that I lazily did not unwrap the rhizomes that were tightly binding the plant pot shaped root ball, and they stayed in a fairly tight clumps many years.

This is interesting to note. David Crompton, in his wonderful book, Ornametal Bamboos, writes that unwrapping the rhizomes is unnecessary and potentially damaging to tender new growth. "The roots or rhizomes [...] must not be touched or teased out in any way as would normally be done to facilitate establishment with a shrub or tree." (pg. 92 "Establising a new plant.")

I agree that Ornamental Bamboos is a good book. But have found unwrapping the rhizomes speeds the spread of newly planted runners considerably, especially if they are in a pot that should have been up sized the year before.

I've propagated a lot of running bamboo, and when I was in the practice of potting up my divisions and letting them ''settle in'' to their containers for a season before planting, many times, time got away from me and they became ''rhizome wrapped''.

While it is important to be careful unwrapping rhizomes, and one does not need to go nuts about it, releasing some of the wrapped rhizomes is overall beneficial to a root bound bamboo.

These days when selling bamboo installations,I don't bother with pots as much, and plant much larger divisions that are made and handled with machinery.

Here I planted 2-3 year potted plants and I never unwrap rhizomes, as expected my Phy all look like clumping bamboo but that is what I'm after anyway. My guess is that this year's rhizome growth with extend out and I'll have to prune. My plan is to try to grow big bamboo in small areas so going forward I'll heavily rhizome prune and leave only a few selected shoots each year.

dependable wrote:These days when selling bamboo installations, I don't bother with pots as much

It can be an interesting proposition (initially at least) when your mail order bamboo arrives and it has buds or rhizomes growing out of the drainage holes, or it has buckled the pot all out of shape. Who knew a carpet knife would be involved in gardening?

needmore wrote:My guess is that this year's rhizome growth will extend out and I'll have to prune. My plan is to try to grow big bamboo in small areas so going forward I'll heavily rhizome prune and leave only a few selected shoots each year.

I want my P. vivax and P. dulcis to cover the whole area of lawn and I plan on using the trench system to root prune the outer edges. I will have to fill the trench with sand or pea shingle as we have an aged, partially-sighted dog.