Parker Giant growth in Deep South Texas

[boonut]

I have two Parker Giants. Both are doing great in Deep South Texas. They have held up to hurricane Dolly and flooding. They can take any where from very little water to flooding. This one always look great. I have to thin it from time to time to keep the wind load down. Here are a few pics.

[boonut]

The orange in the culm sheaths just started happening this year. Over the years, I have heard people say that they think the Parker Giant is D. Latiflorus, Bambusa Beecheyana, and several others. The thinking seems to be targeted at a super species of one of these. I have D. Latiflorus growing as well as Bambusa Beecheyana "pubescens".

The Parker was the last one to go in the ground of the three and has outgrown the others. Bambusa Beecheyana "pubescens" look close, but I don't believe they are the same.

The Parker has fairly straight culms with long branches. It puts up quite a few culms each year. The pictures above don't really show the size... I should have had someone in the picture with the bamboo.

Always exciting to see the new culms.

Dendrocalmus Grandis and Dendrocalamus Validus have both put up nice size shoots this year. Very nice to see those. Neither of those had substantial damage at 23F. Of course our low temps are only for a few hours at best. We can have 4 years or more of no freezing temps.

[boonut]

Another picture of the new culms

[blokker]

Very nice Boonut, that's a great looking bamboo!
You can certainly see why someone may think that it is a latiflorus by the orange tips on the new culms.
Great to see those photos

[boonut]

blocker...

If you want to assist in the identification... or guess at what this is, let me know what kind of detailed pics may help with this. All I know is that it is one very nice bamboo for our area. So many just don't like our soil pH or limited rain. On the farm, I have flood irrigation, so water isn't a big problem, but I do try to limit the waterings to fully test how they will grow here.

Almost no runner grow any higher than 3' here. Some of the bamboos I have don't like the limited water. With over 21 acres on the farm, my goal is to find which ones work best here and propagate those so that visitors can enjoy the walks through the bamboo.

Thanks for the feedback.

[marcat]

Alan do you know of any "super species" other than say Clone-X? That is if it really is a Ventricosa sure looks like one on steroids.
Got a parker still in a #45 pot sitting next to a potted Beechy pubesens about the same age from cuttings I will try to compare them.
MarCat

[blokker]

Hi Boonut

I'm certainly no expert but merely an enthuisiastic bamboo devotee. The soil we have at home is a fairly heavy clay but the bamboos respond well particularly when organic matter is incorporated into the soil to help break it up. By far the strongest and fasting growing bamboo I have is the D.Latiflorus, last shooting season as a plant just under 3 years old it but shoots up at 3 1/2" diameter. Our few frosts over winter don't touch it all, although it is quite mild where we are with Lako for example also seeing winter through without setback. If I saw your bamboo out here I would immediately assume that it was a Latiflorus no question but then again we're not familiar with Parker Giant in Australia naturally, I've only read about it with interest on this forum.
Whatever it is, it's a beauty you've got there!

I really appreciate seeing those sort of photos on this forum

Regards

[boonut]

I have D. Latiflorus also, but it just doesn't grow that well here. I have learned that many of the bamboo sold in Texas a few years ago were misidentified. So many people here are more interested in $$$ than bamboo or identification. I purchased 40 D. Hamiltonii several years ago. None have turned out to be anything even close. Most were B. Bambos. The vendor has since offered me 3 more bamboo that also turned out to be misidentified.

It is possible that the D. Latiflorus is misidentified and therefore not a good one for comparing to the Parker Giant.

Here is a picture of me (on the left) and Chuck... a good friend from Florida. He was one of the first to get the Parker Giant from Hawaii. I have talked to Jim Parker in Hawaii about this bamboo.

[boonut]

That picture was taken in 2006. We need to visit Chuck to see how he is doing as well as the Parker Giant.

[blokker]

Just for interest here is a photo of our D.Latiflorus at just under 3 years old. I've since cleaned out some of the smaller culms over winter but don't have an updated photo.

[blokker]

Another of 3 new shoots coming up last summer

[foxd]

I'm still interested in trying the Clone X cold hardiness experiment in Southern Indiana. From my experiments with Buddha Belly, I think the Clone X might be grown as a perennial. It wouldn't be the first tropical plant that survives the Winter with top kill.

The Buddha Belly is still going, having survived three Winters. I have a hunch about what is going on underground based on how it emerges in the Spring.

[bamboothew]

I'm still interested in trying the Clone X cold hardiness experiment in Southern Indiana. From my experiments with Buddha Belly, I think the Clone X might be grown as a perennial. It wouldn't be the first tropical plant that survives the Winter with top kill.

The Buddha Belly is still going, having survived three Winters. I have a hunch about what is going on underground based on how it emerges in the Spring.

Foxd, I have been having the same thought about trying Clone X. I am thinking that as vigorously as it grows and upsizes it may be able to reach a decent size even with the topkill every winter, especially if the roots were heavily mulched during the winter.t would make a striking specimen even if it only got a few feet tall every summer.

[foxd]

I'm still interested in trying the Clone X cold hardiness experiment in Southern Indiana. From my experiments with Buddha Belly, I think the Clone X might be grown as a perennial. It wouldn't be the first tropical plant that survives the Winter with top kill.

The Buddha Belly is still going, having survived three Winters. I have a hunch about what is going on underground based on how it emerges in the Spring.

Foxd, I have been having the same thought about trying Clone X. I am thinking that as vigorously as it grows and upsizes it may be able to reach a decent size even with the topkill every winter, especially if the roots were heavily mulched during the winter.t would make a striking specimen even if it only got a few feet tall every summer.

Yes, so far I've had good luck with having planted the rootball several feet deep and in a sunny location. I haven't bothered with mulching it for the past several Winters. Judging from above ground growth I think that the parts of the culms buried underground survive and put out branches in the late Spring. These branches then provide energy for the larger shoots that emerge later. By late Fall the culms have done an amazing size up. Of course the question is, is the plant starting its growing season with more or less energy than it had the year before?

[boonut]

Another of 3 new shoots coming up last summer

One distinguishing feature and difference between the Parker Giant and D. Latiflorus in your picture and other pictures online is the reflexed culm sheath blade on the Latiflorus and it is not reflexed on the Parker.


After examining the culm sheath blade and auricles on pictures of Beecheyana available at numerous locations and the Beecheyana "pubescens" I grow on my farm, I would have to conclude that it too is not the same as the Parker Giant.

I have examined a number of Beecheyana over the years and decided to stay away from it because of the potex virus. The Beecheyana "pubescens" doesn't have the virus.

So, in my humble opinion, we still don't know the right ID for the Parker Giant.

What are your thoughts???