Cold damage winter 2013/2014

[johnw]

Looks like we might have solved the mysterious death of JWH's "denudata" with the help of a friend at Booshoot. He says: "… as close to positive as I can be that this is Himalayacalamus falconeri". Seems there was a mix-up several years ago and denudata production has been halted ever since. Of note they do not recommend denudata for the east coast at all.

johnw

[JWH]

A big thanks to Johnw & friends for their boo detective work!

[needmore]

Yes, thanks, good to know.

[dependable]

Hibanobambusa shiroshima is re foliating. Had 95% leaf kill & I thought culms might be dead too.

Semi-Arundinaria yashadake 'Kimmei' refoliating after around 90% leaf kill.

SA Fastuosa 'viridis' (exposed stand) refoliating after 80% leaf kill.

Psudosasa japonica shows some limited refoliation of culms that have some green (but no undamaged) leaves.

[needmore]

Soon out with the old, in with the new...

[SammyJ]

I just wanted to mention in my world of being elevated in the North Okanagan of BC, Canada we had a pretty cold winter. -20 Celsius or slightly colder quite a bit this winter. As far as my bamboo, Ph. Bisetti was the best performer with only 20% top kill at most. Pretty much everything else took a beating and was 50% to 90% top kill. I have lots of pictures too large to post. Been working on getting some I can post. Ph. Spectabilis is also in the 20% top kill range. Ph. Nuda I had to cut all the big culms this year which might have been 9ft tall. Last year they were fine. All of my bamboo is on its 4th shooting season. All 3-5 gallon plants. Anything heavily buried by snow did way better over winter than not being heavily buried. Winter wind is what top kills them from what I have observed in my 4 years of growing bamboo. Ph. Vivax is the least hardy of what I grow and it has 1 nice leafy green culm left, it is about 4 feet tall. I'm hoping for a big shooting season this year even after the worst winter since planting. Some of my Bamboo are starting to shoot now, some won't for a while yet.

Instead of listing what bamboo I have I will just tell you I just bought every hardy species they had at www.bambooworld.com and it seems to be working out pretty good.

[Tarzanus]

We've had warm weather with daily high around 27C. Some of the spectabilis shoots started to zig-zag. Strangely all of them 'nodded' in the same angle. At first I thought they are aborting, but today, just when colder air came, they all straighened and even turned into opposite direction to zag the zig.

[stevelau1911]

Brad, it doesn't look like your spectabilis lost that much size even with complete top kill. I believe that partial winter damage so that there is still a lot of re-leafing on damaged culms must delay shooting season because the energy seems to be going right into leaf production first. I really hope that the energy that goes back into the existing culms doesn't downsize the new shoots a lot because if they are top killed on the top parts, they will just look ugly in the grove.

I'm sure atrovaginata and parvifolia must have more shooting energy than the bicolor.


I never expected the bicolor to shoot ahead of every other phyllostachys in my garden this year, but it's also the only one that wasn't exposed to the 13 subzero nights last winter with the greenhouse protecting it. They should still all shoot before June 1st.

[johnw]

Checked out several P. aureosulcata 'Aureocaulis' in the city here. One small twelve foot one, moved 2 yrs ago looked poor a couple of moves ago but it appears to have kept 80% of its foliage (ie 20% are green). The biggest one circa 22ft is 90% brown on the top 3ft but the culms are fine, the east side looks like 20% leaf damage (80% of all leaves are completely green0 no culm damage, west side 10% leaf damage (90% are totally green). No shoots yet.

The damn Trachy looks better but was wrapped in fleece.

[johnw]

We have no reports in the spreadsheet on cold damage this winter for the following bamboos:

all F. Juizhaigou numbers

Indocalamus latifolius

Phyllostachys angusta

Phyllostachys arcana

Sasa oshidensis

Sasa palmata

Sasaella masamuneana 'Albostriata'

You can pm me if you have data.

johnw

[jd.]

Phyllostachys angusta

' nothing unusual with the angusta here: it's completely top killed like nearly every bamboo here.

The only Phyllostachys bamboo with leaves surviving the -20°F (-29°C) winter was buried in at least a meter of snow. Of the snow covered bamboos here only a parvifolia was able to hold onto a few leaves at ground level. This parvifolia is also the only bamboo here that survived the winter with branches that grew new leaves in the spring with new leaves near ground level. Both the aureosulcata and rubromarginata had deeper snow than that parvifolia.

In milder winters the rubromarginata here often suffers the least leaf damage but is completely top killed this year.

[needmore]

We have no reports in the spreadsheet on cold damage this winter for the following bamboos:

all F. Juizhaigou numbers

Indocalamus latifolius

Phyllostachys angusta

Phyllostachys arcana

Sasa oshidensis

Sasa palmata

Sasaella masamuneana 'Albostriata'

You can pm me if you have data.

johnw

oshidensis has many green leaves, I suspect snow cover, the rest of your list above was top killed here

[Alan_L]

Sasaella masamuneana 'Albostriata': buried in snow here so was protected and kept green leaves (but always gets mowed/sheared before new growth emerges anyway)

Phyllostachys arcana: in a somewhat-sheltered spot surrounded by deciduous shrubs, my young plant had two of the six the culms survive and leaf out.

I don't have I. latifolius but all of my other Indocalamus were essentially top-killed -- a few culms are sprouting leaves.

I had -8F here.

[needmore]

Noticed today that Phy virella well above the snow line leafed out to the tip on a couple culms, parvifolia the only other Phy I've seen with any new leaves and scant upon those. So based on this winter, virella seems to win the hardiest leaf bud contest.

[moriphen]

We have no reports in the spreadsheet on cold damage this winter for the following bamboos:

all F. Jiuzhaigou numbers

Indocalamus latifolius

Phyllostachys angusta

Phyllostachys arcana

Sasa oshidensis

Sasa palmata

Sasaella masamuneana 'Albostriata'

You can pm me if you have data.

johnw

F. sp Jiuzhaigou I and IV, had no damage at 4º F with winds around 30 mph. duration was at least 24 hrs

Sasa oshidensis, had no damage at 4º F.