To darn early.. shoots in December

[moriphen]

It is warm and its December, so that means spring shooting occurs in the winter of course. I'll be crossing my fingers till March wish my plants good luck.

F. robusta 'Campbell':


F. sp. 'Scabrida':

[stevelau1911]

It doesn't look like anything more than a bud set which happens with many bamboos which tend to shoot earlier in the spring. I think this is brought on by vernalization as temperatures in the 40-45F range recharge their growth hormones. Moso and the aureosulcatas tend to set their shoot buds very early in the fall, and they also tend to be the first ones to emerge. I'm not sure if all bamboos set their buds in the fall, but it does happen on many kinds of plants.

Here's my latest blog post showing how peonies will also swell their buds in the fall in preparation for the following spring. The buds must be fairly hardy because they never get fried over the winter no matter how thick and juicy they look in the fall.
http://stevespeonygarden.blogspot.com/2 ... .html#more


If you dig out a phyllostachys rhizome now, chances are it will already have cattle horns all over it by now. I'm not sure if a late shooter like atrovaginata will set buds in the fall. I think this may be an adaptation to climates with shorter growing seasons as it allows shoots to emerge extra early in response to warmer temperatures in the spring.

[ghmerrill]

We have had a very warm fall so far, with only a couple light frosts- my bananas all look great! I have noticed that several boos have late shoots. One of them, richard haubrich, needs to keep them going just a bit longer, and they will be ok for the winter.

[bamboothew]

What a coincidence (or not?!), moriphen: my robusta 'Wolong' has 7 new shoots right now, just in time for hard frost next weekend. How wonderful

[moriphen]

I can add Fargesia dracocephala 'Rufa' to the expanding list of confused bamboo's. Thankfully it is only a handful of new shoots and not every viable bud, so a severe late winter will not be a total loss for the plants normal spring shooting season.