Vivax Aureocaulis, a beauty I acquired last year that's shooting for the first time, up-sizing nicely from pencil diameter culms 3' tall to thumb sized culms already 6' tall. Not the rich orange/gold of Golden Crookstem and Allgold but stunning to behold with it's variable green striping on butter y...

Here in the Mid-Atlantic zone 7a eastern shore of Md., I find Japonica to be the best behaved of the 20 or so different boo i grow. I favor it in shade situations which diminishes it's vigor but even in full sun it tends to be less a runner and more a walking clumper. It also is cold hardy, drought ...

I needed a windbreak for which rubro and bisettii did an excellent job, both of which are great utility bamboos.

Bamboo begs to be cut to reduce leaf mass which feeds it's growth. Once a stand reaches the desired size it's necessary to remove an equal amount of older culms as shot the previous Spring, to maintain it's size. In this way an equalibrium is maintain and vigor is controlled and the bamboo is less i...

I up pot 1 gal. plants to 5 gal. when I purchase them in March. This allows me to control the sun, water and soil quality. They then shoot and fill the 5 gal. pots by the end of June at which time I up pot to a 10 gal. and in November overwinter them in a sheltered location until next March when I p...

Nitrogen makes it shoot more, shoots are most likely going to be bigger and will take much more energy to grow. Though not a Vulcan my logic tells me it would take less energy from the rhizomes if growth is fueled by nitrogen but either way it's an added expense for dubious benefit. Starving the pl...

If the situation is critical I would cut EVERYTHING down. You can let the area you want to keep grow back after you dig a 1' deep x 1' wide trench(may need to be deeper and wider for mature Viridis) around the bamboo you want to maintain. In the interim know that for bamboo to grow and spread requir...

My pics of this years shoots are at my blog, jozonsfolly.blogspot.com if anyone's interested.

Like Castillon, I just acquired Vivax Aureocaulis this year and can't yet compare until it puts on some size. My Vivax is more yellow/tan than the orange gold of Allgold.

If you provide a sheltered location with full sun Allgold and Castillon should do well for you. I purchased a 1 gal. Allgold 2 yrs. ago, up potted to a 5 gal. when I got it and over wintered by burying pot in ground in a sheltered south facing area, covered with plastic during coldest spells and it ...

I agree waiting is better but not always an option, in my case I wanted them out of the bed before the Spectabilis encroached on them any further and started mixing rhizomes. He wanted to know how soon he could move them and as long as they're moved to shade and watered regularly, moving as soon as ...

Last year I had a couple of 3 year aureosulcata aureocaulis that were being over run by spectabilis so I dug them up right after they shot and leafed out in early to mid June. I put them in 5, 7 and 10 gal. pots, moved to shade and watered regularly. They settled right in, never leaf curled or showe...

While rhizome pruning will curtail running, it should be noted that leaf mass is what fuels vigor. Cutting culms in conjunction with rhizome pruning is the most effective way to maintain a grove the size you want. I trench a circle or oval around my boos and back fill with mulch, when said boo fills...

For what it's worth I prune the beginning of March taking out 3 yr. old growth, the logic being the resources needed to sustain the older growth is redirected into the soon to arrive new shoots and providing me with garden stakes for the coming garden season.

For clarification, I said a southern vendor, and meant someone that specifically grows bamboo, Lewis Bamboo, J.M. Bamboo, Bamboo Plantation, Steve Ray's Bamboo, etc... not Lowe's, Home Depot or your local nursery, sorry for the confusion. If you want to know about bamboo talk to the people that grow...