Howdy folks.

Most of the forum posts about Green Screen were from several years ago. How are ya'll feeling about Green Screen versus ordinary F. Robusta?

jp

JP - I too will be very interested to see the responses to that one.

These names "Green Screen" etc. are a smoke screen that just add to the confusion for bamboophiles.

Bamboo Garden says "Green Screen" is really Pingwu. My robusta was unlabelled but the grower buys from Bamboo Select so I assumed it had to be "Green Screen" but it has been id'ed as Campbell. It's bad enough with the taxonomists changing names every few years - though at least we learn something and in the long run for the better - but nurseries sticking extra names on known plants just for marketing purposes irritates. Okay I recognize if more grow bamboos because of a catchy name then fine.

F. nitida Great Wall = a seedling grown from one of the flowering nitidas on the Isle of Mann by someone. Special features compared to old generation nitidas or just the first across the starting line of next generation - who knows?

And is there a chart listing these patented names with their true equivalents?

_________________
johnw coastal Nova Scotia

Johnw: 'Green Screen' probably indicates that it is a micro-prop or tissue culture (TC) propagation. Some growers think that the TC plants are less robust, not as vigorous or hardy, at least for the first several years of the plant's life.

I have a potted 'Green Screen' -- was in the ground but topkilled a couple years in a row, so I protect it over the winter now. I have F. rufa 'Green Panda' (I think that's the right name) which seems to be doing very well, so I don't think TC plants are "bad", but I don't have anything to compare to.

_________________
Alan.
My blog: It's not work, it's gardening!

Alan_L

Well then at least these names are a warning signal to t.c. plants.

We have both Kimmei's Rufa and Green Panda and can't says we see a difference in performance. F. nitida 'Great Wall' was offered here a the supermarkets one year but were sold out before I could snag one. Otherwise we see no named Fargesias in garden centres and certainly no Phyllostachys with or without names.

Do you have any experience with 'Great Wall'?

P.S. I think - at least in our experience - F. robusta is quite tender until it gets a good root system established. Having said that we haven't had a really challenging winter for some time. - the time our newly planted Campbell got tip-nipped.

_________________
johnw coastal Nova Scotia

One of my F robustas was sold to me by a bamboo supplier as robusta, one from a commercial nursery called green screen. They are not planted in the same light conditions, so I can not really compare them. The green screen in full sun is growing very robustly, at about 9 ft high and 9 ft wide(at top), from a 3 gallon pot in 6 or 7 years. The culm widths are around 1/2 in. The regular robusta in the shade is 6 ft wide and 8 ft high and has somewhat thicker & more upright culms. It was transplanted into woods after being killed to ground by freezing 9 or 10 years ago, have had the plant for 13 years.

dependable - What temperature froze your robusta to the ground?

_________________
johnw coastal Nova Scotia

The low for that rare (for around here) cold snap was -7 f. That one also killed to ground P nigra, P Aurea, among others, and killed Sasa kurilis.

We are lucky to get P. aurea through two successive winters no matter how mild or cold. Sasa kurilensis has not been a good-doer here despite the fact that it hails from Hokkaido and Sakhalin, it is now gone completely. There are plenty of tender plants from Hokkaido and no doubt the great mountains of snow they get protect those from cold so kurilensis' hardiness rating is greatly exaggerated. Or maybe we had a tender clone?

I assume you had no snow cover. Our worst winter was 93/94 (very late January-April 1994 to be exact), luckily we got a foot of snow the night before all hell broke loose so the ground was unfrozen. I hear 1994/5 was the bad one for the rest of eastern North America though we had an unusually short mild winter that year. Was that the one that caused your damage?

_________________
johnw coastal Nova Scotia

There were a couple of tough winters here, between 2001 and 2003(?). One had extreme cold alternating w ice & snow, the next was pretty mild with a dry sub zero arctic wind in march. Should keep a weather log I suppose. Did not plant my first bamboo until 1996.

Tissue cultured Green Screen a.k.a. the 'Pingwu' robusta cultivar takes longer to get to size than the better known 'Campbell'. I think TC sets the plant basically back closer to a seedling stage. Now with proper care it does size up to a decent plant fairly quickly. With that said large divisions of Green Screen (12ft + tall) also don't appear to be as vigorous as Campbell (less number of shoots, longer period of recovery.) Identification diferences between the two are quite distinct. Here in Oregon my seven year old Green Screen shows a fair amount of leaf tip die off each and every year regardless of a cold or mild winter. Campbell has never done that in the ten years I've been growing it. Personally I consider the Campbell form the superior one by far.

_________________
Pacific NW ABS Member
Growing Fargesia, Borinda and Thamnocalamus near Portland, Oregon
USDA Zone 8B

That the tissue culture sets back plant type explains why my "green screen" is growing like crazy but has never attained the culm thickness or upright nature of the old robusta. It is an effective screen, has a soft droopy habit, the old robusta has upright culms that look nice.

Of course trade names given by commercial nurseries are more for marketing than for accurate botanical description, and one could see why they would call it green screen rather than "cambbell", so who knows what I have.

Based on your description I doubt it is the Campbell form. Pingwu has larger flatter leaves and is not near as upright as Campbell. The shoots and leaf sheaths have a slight red margin as well. Campbell has a small concave shaped leaf and viewing clumps from a distance looks completely different than Pingwu.

_________________
Pacific NW ABS Member
Growing Fargesia, Borinda and Thamnocalamus near Portland, Oregon
USDA Zone 8B

Well, here are comparison photos. Light regime is different, but you may be able to tell that the green screen has not achieved the uprightness of old robusta. Bambooadam is also correct in observation that there is usually a little bit of leaf tip dying in winter. Culms on green screen have not reached the diameter of old robusta either. Measured from outside culm to achieve some scale in the picture.

It would not have occurred to me that the effect if a tissue culture would result in a forever inmature growth habit. While green screen is a great screen, in my opinion, it is not as nice a specimen.

Update: The Green screen suffered winter damage it's first season, despite being in a very protected area. Culm damage varied from almost none at all to about 2 feet of top kill.

After letting it leaf in the spring, I pruned the dead parts of the culms, but left anything that had any leaves, hoping to build its strength. Now, it's lopsided and goofy looking, but I'll give it a year or two to see if it adjusts.