Bamboo Comeback?

Global warming winter, then a sudden ice storm. POW! Bamboo got socked. Add your house and garden video tours to www.design2share.com, the Where I Live video-sharing website. Subscribe to the Design2Share Q&A weekly podcasts for help with your design questions.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• bamboo
• winter
• ice
• shoots
• spring
• recovery
• Design2Share
• garden
• landscaping
• howto
• DIY
• plants

[Mindpetals]

awesome vid! I love love love growing bamboo!! been doing it successfully for about 2 years now. much joy it brings me.

[westend104]

@Mindpetals Thanks for watching. Yes, our bamboo is now lush and strong. We trim it to a tall hedge height in the fall so the winter ice and snow doesn't force the tall guys into the road in front of our house (in past winters, we've had some blocked traffic because we don't use a retaining fence). But we let the new shoots grow 30-40 feet tall in the spring and love the lushness throughout the year. I can see why you're in love with bamboo!!!

[CillasGarden]

Hi! It's good to hear that your boos are on the recovery! Running bamboo is a bit of a taboo here in Australia but we have quite a few clumping varieties in our garden. I have posted a video response of our Black Bamboo. Hope you like!

[westend104]

I can't wait to see your video, and thanks so much for watching! We're entering Year 3 of the bamboo, and they are doing quite well. We sprayed an anti-dessecating agent on the leaves and they didn't brown at all, but we've had an unusually rainy winter. We thinned out the shoot at the bottom, added some nice top soil and some organic grass fertilizer, and they're taking off nicely again. Best, Jay

[parduspilot]

Nuda is supposed to be one of the better tasting bamboos if you decide to harvest any shoots to eat. I found that Nuda really doesn't like hot dry weather aboveground in pots. Around here we call those roots that come up and dive back into the ground "toe trippers".

[westend104]

Thanks so much for your nuda info!! We'll try some nuda this coming year. We luckily sprayed the bamboo with some "Wilt Pruf" protectant just the day before we started getting severe ice storms this month. The bamboo has held up well while other patches we've seen have broken and browned badly. Thanks for watching! Best, Jay

[spacehopperballs]

To me Bamboos and Palms are totally tropical.

I don't like Variegated varieties or very "showy" types.

Natural looking is always far better in my book.

[Mindpetals]

@westend104 right on!! :)

[bj616]

It's pretty tough to kill bamboo because it will always rebound from the roots. Yellow Groove is the second hardiest of the running bamboos.

[westend104]

BAMBOO UPDATE: The warm spring weather and rains we've been having revived the bamboo. Yeah! New shoots sprang up, and some are almost 9 feet tall. I cut back the dead canes to make way for the many new shoots. You gotta love Nature! :>)