Within one month the temperatures went from Highs in the 70*F's (20*C) to a low temp of 8*F (-13*C) then back up to a high of 60*F (15*C). A lot of plants were still actively growing and the damage was greater than I had expected for some plants but less on others.

Bamboos that had total leaf kill.
Fargesia scabrida
F. utilis
Phyllostachys dulcis
Yushania anceps

Plants that had 90% leaf kill.
Fargesia robusta
Thamnocalamus tessellatus
Yushania maling

Plants that had 75% leaf kill.
Bashania fargesii
Phyllostachys glauca
Ph. violascens
Pleioblastus viridistriatus
Pl. v. 'chrysophyllus'
Semiarundinaria yashadake 'kimmei'
S. fastuosa

Plants that had 50% leaf kill.
Phyllostachys angusta
Ph. nidularia
Ph. propinqua
Pleioblastus distichus
Pl. distichus 'Mini'
Pl. fortunei
Sasaella ramosa
Semiarundinaria okuboi

Plants with 25% leaf kill.
Bashania quingchengshanensis (Leaves on older shoots look good. Leaves on fall shoots were frozen.)
Fargesia nitida
F. murieliae (Looks better than nitida)
Phyllostachys aurea 'Koi'
Ph. propinqua 'Beijing'
Ph. vivax
Ph. v. 'Aureocaulis'
Pleioblastus shibuyanus 'Tsuboi'
Semiarundinaria fastuosa 'Viridis'

Plants with less than 10% leaf kill.
Arundinaria gigantea 'Macon'
Fargesia Rufa
Hibanobambusa tranquillans 'Shiroshima'
Indocalamus tessellatus
Phyllostachys aureosulcata (all forms)
Ph. humilis
Ph. nigra (all forms)
Ph. nuda (BooShoots plant has about 30% yellow leaves, Rutgers clone has < 10% yellow leaves)
Sasaella masamuneana 'Albostriata'


Plants with no damage
Phyllostachys bissetii
Ph. mannii 'decora'
Ph. rubromarginata
Pleioblastus pygmaeus (Protected under Pine tree)
Pseudosasa japonica
Ps. japonica 'Tsutsumiana'
Sasa veitchii (Normal leaf edge whitening)

My other bamboos are protected by a greenhouse or other structure.

Bill

That is a devastating roundup Bill. I was in Wenatchee this summer, and wondered how the bamboo grew on you side of the mountains. And now, I guess I know. Will you stick with these plants when they come back, (the ones that do come back), or go with the ones that work best in your zone? I am amazed at enthusiasts who grow bamboo which suffers die back, as the evergreen nature of the bamboo is (for me - I'm visually oriented) one of it's wonderful features.

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BambooMoon
zone 8b
Snohomish, Wa

Nothing is completely fried yet. I think its been somewhere around 15 for a low in iowa

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Some of the greatest losses in Florida have occurred when the weather has been warm, then it suddenly drops below freezing. In the classic freeze of 1983, it was in the low 80's F on Christmas Eve, then 19 to 20 degrees F on Christmas Day. Plants were still actively growing and suffered tremendous damage. Even killed my Boston Ivy that grows you know where?

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Roy Rogers
Southern Tampania de la Floridana Universidad (STFU)
STFU Motto: All Bamboos are not Created Equal; @ STFU, the Search Continues
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ROY'S BAMBOO LIST

I see that same type of behavior in Texas... just an example, tomorrow is supposed to be 83*, but Wed. is going to be 42*... over a 40* drop in 24 hours.

And Bill, sorry to hear about your damage. Sounds like you need a bigger greenhouse.

Supposed to be 90 tomorrow and down to 50 at night by the weekend. Most of the cold fronts get just south of Corpus Christi and then stall out. Some times winter down here is like a tug-of-war. We get strong blasts of wind from the south or from the west coast of Mexico and then strong blasts from the North. High humidity... low humidity... lots of wind.

I used to fish and go scuba diving offshore. This time of year, the seas get too rough. It stays that way through March. Very high winds.

I agree with Roy... it's the rapid changes down here that does the damage. And then there was the freak snowstorm on Christmas day in 2004. It was the first snow in 98 years in the Rio Grande Valley. It got down to 26 for a few hours and stayed around freezing for an entire day.

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Allen D. Aleshire
Bamboo Nut Farm

http://www.boonut.com

sorry for your losses,bill.
the last few days i found about 15 new culms on sinobambusa tootsik and more than a few phyllostachys vivax aureacaullis culms. not to mention ongoing production on all the bambusa species. almost mid-november! the below 40 deg. f. nights have not outwitted the constant rains and warm days. i anticipate a roasting in the next month, but am crossing my toes.in sunny south louisiana, john voss (pseudosasa japonica culming and flowering simultaneously last week) the plants don't read the books.

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zone 8b near folsom,la.

At least you have the photos at the BAMBOOWEB. and some garden stakes for tomatoes next year.

Wow. That's just staggering, Bill. Yo-yo temperatures are the bane of gardeners. But, your record-keeping does provide valuable data about the durability of certain species -- and the sensitivities of others. I just purchased a F. scabrida a couple weeks back, and while the weather has been mild for the entire fall, I'm having some thoughts about overwintering this specimen indoors the first winter, even though this is zone 6b. It looks like one of the more tender fargesias.

Hope your damaged bamboos recover completely and return gangbusters next spring.

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Cady G.
"Killed two..." -- Seiji Miyaguchi/Kyuzo

Leaf death on bamboo is normal for winter here. As the plants get larger they seem to become hardier. The strange thing is which plants had the damage and which did not. Pleioblastus pygmaeus , Pseudosasa japonica and Ps. japonica 'Tsutsumiana' normally have near total leaf or culm death but came through fine while it normally takes a lot more to hurt Phyllostachys dulcis and Thamnocalamus tessellatus.

The dead leaves should have blown off last night with wind gusts near 70 mph. Guess what, my greenhouse was only rated for 60 mph I spent a couple of hours today walking over the neighbors property finding pieces of it. I guess the Parvifolia and Kwangsiensis are destined for a colder winter this year.

The good thing is that after 16 hours I have power again. The power company said that some people might have to wait till Wednesday to get power.

Hi Bill,

If ya' get tired of the wind and snow... come on down for a little vacation in Deep South Texas. Winter Texans are always welcome in the Rio Grande Valley.

Oh yeah... and bring the pics of Hawaii with you.

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Allen D. Aleshire
Bamboo Nut Farm

http://www.boonut.com

Yikes. I had no idea that greenhouses were rated for wind tolerance. What a lousy way to start the new week, trying to find out where the wind took yours. It's strange that some of your species didn't suffer damage when they "should" have, but maybe that speaks to the power of location and microclimate?

From my observations, bamboos gaining hardiness with age seems to be, at least in part, because the outer culms and foliage of a dense stand take the brunt of the wind, protecting the inner culms and creating a calmer (and warmer) microclimate. Last winter, the outer leaves of my P. decora were totally burned, while the leaves inside the stand were green and unscathed.

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Cady G.
"Killed two..." -- Seiji Miyaguchi/Kyuzo

That's what I was imagining could happen. The bigger the grove the better. But I have to plant all my bamboo close by the house now in little plots. Animals like destroying what I like building. The deer dance on the little fences I put up for my boo in the woods. I'm about ready to....................

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So, when is deer hunting season in your area, Lance.

One thing you could try, is planting large field-grown specimens. Some nurseries offer these plants, which come with a selected number of culms and at varying heights. At New England Bamboo, I have gotten 8' high/3 nice culms plus shoots P. nuda with its rootball in a 14" "grow bag" (lightweight landscape fabric held in place by a netting of wire). You plant the whole thing without opening the bag or removing wire). Pop it in the planting hole and 'viola!' you have your Instant Grove.

The benefit is that the culms are already big and strong, and the foliage is out of the reach of deer. You can make a corral of hardware cloth and wood stakes around the perimeter 4' from the culms (put the stakes in the earth at a diagonal pointing outward -- makes it harder for critters to climb up and over) for the first few seasons.

Drawback: shipping if you are far away from the bamboo nurseries that sell field grown, large 'boos. Trucking costs can be prohibitive. But I've seen companies that truck big flatbeds for a couple thousand miles to bring a load of 12' high 'boo to a landscape site. Worth taking a look at the idea.

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Cady G.
"Killed two..." -- Seiji Miyaguchi/Kyuzo

I''m doing something along that line. I start little ones by the house where I can watch them for a few years. Then if they get size to them, I will move them to a location where they can devour the ground that lies before them. In theory, I have alot of ground that they could march over and destroy!!!!!!!!!!

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