2009 Boo Shooting Diary

[Akumanubis]

Ph. aureosulcata... so late compared to others

[foxd]

4/22/2009
Phyllostachys atrovaginata
Phyllostachys parvifolia

Both put up rather wimpy looking shoots today.

[va_highlander]

P nigra shooting, but only one shoot poking up so far and less than half the size of last year's. This plant lost about 50% of its foliage during the winter and may have been knocked back more than I suspect.

I don't think so. I've had plantings completely defoliated that have sized up in the Spring and your planting only lost 50% of the foliage.

Thanks much for the hope and encouragement. I suppose I'm just an anxious father and preparing myself for the worst.

Later yesterday, I took a stroll around the yard and noticed the ground cracking and heaving in several places near existing culms of this plant. Though it's too early to know for certain, I suspect you're right and looks like there may be some more substantial shoots pushing toward the surface. It's been fairly cool for several days, with a lot of rain. Today should be in the upper 60s, with 70s and 80s soon to follow. There should be plenty of action in the next week - fingers crossed.

And as an aside: I seem to recall you mentioning once, in a discussion of this winter's cold damage, that the dead leaves still hanging on would eventually drop, to allow more sunlight to reach the remaining folliage. That is exactly what this P nigra did. One day, I looked out the window and all the dead leaves had fallen, seemingly at once.

[Markj]

Yushania ferax- Very slow to up-size, here at least.

Yunnan 3c- new shoots well spread

[mjchet]

Fargesia Robusta (Campbell), was a 5 gallon plant put in the ground a year ago. I'm pretty surprised by the abundance and size of the shoots. Judging by their size compared to last year, these could be 6+ footers! 13 shoots total. This is a 10 day sequence.





Mike

[ghmerrill]

Phyllostachys bambusoides Marliac

[DCBa]

23-April-09, Aureosulcata Spectabilis

I think I'm going to have a lot of cutting to do. Nothing is showing new leaves yet. At least the bissetti still has green culms.

[ghmerrill]

Phyllostachys praecox 'Viridisulcata'

[Mark_NoVA]

Moso finally sent up a shoot yesterday. We've had cool weather and a lot of plants were late this year. Last year it came up about 2 weeks earlier.

[bambooweb]

I have two more shooting
Ph. aureosulcata 'Spectabilis'
Pl. fortunei

We had 4 days of above normal temps and the ground temp is now above 48*. The snow earlier today will probably slow things down.

Bill

[foxd]

I was looking at the shoots from the Pleioblastus shibuyanus 'Tsuboi' today. It seems to have put out a rhizome that has a series of four shoots with flowers on the top. I will try and get a picture.

The real Hibanobambusa tranquillans 'Shiroshima' has put up a shoot.

[bambooweb]

I guess I get to restart counting shoots. It was 20* last night.
The forecast was that it would stay above freezing.

Bill

[foxd]

Today was warm and more shoots began to emerge, but only from the species that had already put up at least one shoot. The MOSO seedling that had put up the relatively large shoot put up a second shoot that is just barely visible in the attached picture.

MOSO shoot with last year's topkill.

The P.s. 'Tsuboi' has a number of shoots with flowers on them. There are at least two rhizomes with flowering shoots. Has anybody else seen this species flower?

tsuboi flower.

I have seen bamboo that was flowering, but I had no idea that they could flower as shoots.

[foxd]

Pleioblastus shibuyanus 'Tsuboi' appears to be going into full flowering.

[needmore]

Pleioblastus shibuyanus 'Tsuboi' appears to be going into full flowering.

Is that a piece of mine Dan?