I'll get some more pics of the whole plant and the unboxing/planting up later, but I just wanted to share a quick picture of my new 'Jiuzhaigou 1' that arrived yesterday. Even after spending 7 days in a box it looks pretty good. Plus, it's always nice to open a box and have the plant basically spring up out of it...lol. nice size plant and nice packaging job bamboo garden.

Ok, as promised, a few more pictures of my birthday boo. As long as I get the order right they will be:

1. You can see why it was so eager to get out, there was a lot of plant in that box.

2. A shot with just a bit of filtered sunlight shining across the culms. It was about 7 pm at this time and well past time when this spot has any direct sun. Even so you can still see the almost electric green of the new culms. Gorgeous!

And 3. Planted in the "corner grove" with the viridistriatus on either side.

And a couple more,

Another shot with just a bit of late day sunlight.

And a picture from this morning in direct light after I gave the plant a misting.

I'll get another shot in the sunlight from farther back so you can see the whole plant in the light better eventually, I snapped that one quick on my lunch break today. It's supposed to be overcast/rainy for the next couple days, so should be good for a transplant, but not so much for pictures.

As far as my new bamboo goes I absolutely love it! It has 21 culms, 9 of which are new this season/currently shooting. The shortest one shooting is just about 12", the tallest has a few leaves at the very tip and is 51" tall. The oldest and/or largest are a couple "original" culms at just about 1/4", and 74" tall if it wasn't drooping.

The lime green color on the new culms is just spectacular! And I can see some nice reds and yellows on the older culms and branches. Can't get a good picture since its been windy and they are small to focus on.

It's currently a bit unruly(gangly?...lol), but most things are when juvenile.... Once it's had some time to acclimate, I will straighten it up a bit with some ties and probably do some legging on the older culms. Nothing drastic, more so just to clean it up a bit as there are lots of very long spindly branchlets with one or no leaves on them.

All in all, I'm very satisfied with my purchase and would recommend Bamboo Garden to anyone for their plant quality, and packaging. The plant is healthy, and got here safe and sound. I can say that it is my first purchase from them, and in comparison to the 3 other nurseries I have used, they tie at the top in both plant and shipping with Lewis Bamboo as far as I am concerned.

Nice acquisition! I get the urge to trim but I would suggest holding off removing foliage, the bugger will take advantage of it.

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Brad Salmon, zone 9 Esparto, CA
www.needmorebamboo.com

Thank you, I'm very excited about it.

Most of what I'd like to remove are long gangly branches with few and many with no leaves. They seem very old and spindly, and many of the tips snap off with little pressure. Will these releaf? They are so thin they almost seem like they're past their leaf producing time.

Obviously you're right, any green is better for the establishment of the plant. Maybe I'll just go take some cuttings of my lemons, that'll satisfy my trim lust for the moment...lol

This is one of three oldest/original culms...looking closely at the branches I can't see anything I recognize as buds on them.

Personally I'd prune dead twigs and leave everything else. My bamboo mentor told me to leave them alone for 3 years, then go ahead and start making divisions/grooming. I mostly followed that with the divisions but not so much with the grooming and I think that my groves were over thinned and suffered more cold damage as a result.

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Brad Salmon, zone 9 Esparto, CA
www.needmorebamboo.com

Sound advice...obviously cold damage is a big factor (realistically probably the single biggest) for me in my whole bamboo venture...so for now if it's green or otherwise alive...it'll stay.

Boy, we've had some pretty hot for us weather over the last couple days, 97 one day, 93 another...every day 85+ forecast for like a week...lol. Might be normal for some people but not us up here....that's a good 10-15 degrees hotter than June usually is.

Anyway, my jiuzhaigou seems to be dealing with it ok...some leaf roll in the sun in the mornings (my rubro has been cupping it's newer leaves too if that's any indicator) but everybody seems happy once the, midday for the Fargesia and afternoon for the Phyllostachys, shade comes.

I may have lost two or three of the new shoots, the tops look dry and brown. I've been watering between every 2 days and on the hottest days daily/18 hours sometimes. I'm worried about over and under watering them since they are all "new" plantings and the weather is a bit rough. But so far I see nothing else to indicate I'm "doing it wrong"...lol.

This evening I found an Asian beetle hanging out at the very tip of one of the Fargesia's newest shoots, my wife doesn't like them, but what she didn't see can't hurt her...lol

Although my zone has far less issues re survival than many zones, I try to purchase or trade with growers who are as close to me as possible. Next many growers ship right after they propagate (dig up). It's a good idea to ask how long the plant has been potted. Survival in any zone depends on root ball development. Over the years, I have transplanted 5 gals to 7 or 10 gal pots prior to planting in ground. The larger the root ball, the better chance for survival once in ground. Stake the plant - wind, storms, etc rattle the roots. Although I'm not sure about the time to prune plants, you should always prune the oldest culms not the ones that look bad. This is general info not directed to this post. I would stake this plant and add 4 to 6 inches of mulch. Be careful about adding fertilizer too quickly. Nice plant from a quality nursery. RGds

Thanks for the info Fred. Re: pruning, I haven't done any save for plucking dead/dry leaves and branches that drop by hand. I probably won't do any more than that since it's leafing out so fast that it looks better every day!

As far as length of time in pot, I wish I had taken a pic of the "rootball" when I planted it because it was very well covered in fine roots and stayed very solid while I unpotted it and dropped it in the hole. The tag had a date in July 2017, so I assume that was the potting date. Supported by the varying ages of culms in the pot I would think.

I'm sure Bamboo Garden ranks near the very top of vendors available to us, and would recommend them and Lewis Bamboo to anyone based on my sampling of sources.

FOUR shoots today!...1 1/2" of rain yesterday and lots of our unusual 85+* heat and we've decided we're happy and ready to grow. It's only been in the ground for a week, but nearly all the old leaves that were dropping or didn't survive shipment have dropped, and new ones are opening everywhere!

This morning there was one shoot, got home from work and now 4. 3 are within inches of an original culm and one in dead center on the planting hugging another culm. I guess clumping makes sense...lol.

I tied up the most floppy culm a bit, and untangled/straightened out the culms and lower branches so that they aren't so jumbled and criss-crossed...looks better to my eye now at least.

Before and after tieing and straightening and a shot of my corner grove from the deck, I didn't get the timing quite right but I love the evening sun on/through it.

Well this plant is dealing with our heat after its transplant very well. I've been watering it, and everything in ground daily, sometimes twice to compensate since we've gotten ~3" of rain in the last month. (And 2.5" of that was one overnight storm) It's been in the ground less than a month and has made several shoots and many new leaves. It's looking very nice in this spot so far I think.

I wanted to share some more pictures in various light conditions. Some of the whole plant and some of the absolutely beautiful culms and shoots.

Greens, yellows, reds, purple and almost black...gorgeous!