I can't help but to worry that one or more of my groves will begin flowering oneday and wipe the whole thing out. I drive past a tall grove of (something) every day, and noticed that it looks like hell this year. Gray/dead canes leaning over the top of a house by the road. I'm tempted to stop and ask about it, but I'm a man who enjoys my privacy, and assume others do too.
If that grove flowered last summer, wouldn't the seeds drop and bring forth a new generation underneath?
Has anyone lost a grove due to flowering?
Moderator: needmore
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sporkandbeans
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- Location: Zone 7, Georgia USA
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Mike McG
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- Location: Near Brenham TXUSDA Z8b
RE: Has anyone lost a grove due to flowering?
Sporkandbeeans,
I do not know anyone who has lost a grove but obviously it does happen, especially with certain species. Also I have not been involved with bamboo very long.
With respect to the grove in Georgia, I understood you had a drought earlier and I have seen areas of bamboo, although not the whole grove, get killed here after a wet winter and spring induced significant shooting that was followed by a hot dry summer. Another possibility is herbicide drift if it was in an agricultural area. Also, there are a lot of dead culms in an old grove and perhaps they are more noticeable this year. Death due to flowering obviously can happen but it is fairly infrequent and I think other causes for the dead bamboo more likely. If you find out more let us know.
Mike McG near Brenham TX
I do not know anyone who has lost a grove but obviously it does happen, especially with certain species. Also I have not been involved with bamboo very long.
With respect to the grove in Georgia, I understood you had a drought earlier and I have seen areas of bamboo, although not the whole grove, get killed here after a wet winter and spring induced significant shooting that was followed by a hot dry summer. Another possibility is herbicide drift if it was in an agricultural area. Also, there are a lot of dead culms in an old grove and perhaps they are more noticeable this year. Death due to flowering obviously can happen but it is fairly infrequent and I think other causes for the dead bamboo more likely. If you find out more let us know.
Mike McG near Brenham TX
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Roy
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- Location: Tampa, Florida, USA,............Florida's SunCoast <Zone 9B-10A>
RE: Has anyone lost a grove due to flowering?
"No" is my answer to your "Subject" question. 29 years of looking at bamboo intensely and I've never seen an entire grove die. I don't believe I've ever seen a clump of bamboo flower that some of the original material did not come back and regenerate.
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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
Roy Rogers
Southern Tampania de la Floridana Universidad (STFU)
STFU Motto: All Bamboos are not Created Equal; @ STFU, the Search Continues
**********
ROY'S BAMBOO LIST-
Mike,Marietta,SC,z8a
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- Location: Marietta, South Carolina
zone 8a, 60 bamboo species in ground including mature size moso, Bambusa, Bashania, Borinda, Chusquea, Fargesia, Himalayacalamus, Phyllostachys, Pleioblastus, Pseudosasa, Qiongzhuea, Sasa, Sasaella, Semiarundinaria, Shibataea, Y - Contact:
RE: Has anyone lost a grove due to flowering?
I lost a nice 11 year old clump of Fargesia murielae when it flowered. Also my grove of Phyllostachys aurea albovariegata reverted to its all-green form (the white component of the chimaera bloomed) when it bloomed, so I ended up with a grove of green-leaf P. aurea. P. nidularia and P congesta died back, but then regrew from 2 foot high shoots when their groves flowered. Pleioblastus simonii died, but dropped plenty of seed that germinated to replace the grove.