Fargesia nitida behavior

kudzu9 · Post by **kudzu9** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 8:05 pm

Last year I took a large division from a grove of F. nitida that was growing in the wild. Many of the plants had flowered, but I found one clump that had no traces of flowering. It's about 12' high and has about 15 mature culms, as well as a half dozen smaller ones that came up in summer. Over the winter it started to lose leaves, look ratty, and has developed a lot of flowers on all the older culms (although I don't see seeds at this point). I haven't paid much attention to it lately, but the weather has been getting nicer, and when I took a look at it today, it's putting out a large amount of new leaf growth all over.

Does anyone have any predictions about what this bamboo is going to do next? Is this going to be a survivor of flowering, or what?

CadyG · Post by **CadyG** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 9:08 pm

Don't know of any Fargesia nitida that has survived flowering. The natural cycle seems to be 80-120 years, flower, set seed, die. The hope is that the seed it forms is viable and you can get a new generation of plants. A colleague's F. murielae started flowering in 1995 and set seed, but none germinated.

My nitida is overdue to flower. I planted it as a year-old "old generation" clone in 1997. It took years to develop any presence, but now is a large plant. It always looks awful in the the winter and won't unfurl any leaves until there have been several days consistently in the 40s or warmer. Right now, despite the mild weather, it still is tightly curled. No signs of flowers so far, but it's just a matter of time. I'll hope for viable seed. Meanwhile, I planted other varieties of bamboo around it that will fill in when the old fargesia goes.

philinshelton · Post by **philinshelton** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 10:41 pm

I have been watching mine closely since the onset of fower in February 2005. I noticed tiny leaves emerging from the spent flowers in fall 2005, and now a second round of flowering is occuring on the spent flowers.

Oregonbamboo · Post by **Oregonbamboo** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:49 pm

philinshelton wrote:I have been watching mine closely since the onset of fower in February 2005. I noticed tiny leaves emerging from the spent flowers in fall 2005, and now a second round of flowering is occuring on the spent flowers.

What he's really saying is that your plant is doomed........it sucks!! I have one left that hasn't started flowering as the others did last year. I just don't want to accept it. I'm in total denial. I refuse to believe it. I'm sure a miracle will happen............

BooKing · Post by **BooKing** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:51 pm

I have been begging mine to start flowering for the last year..

. the mother plant flowered 2 years ago...

VanDell · Post by **VanDell** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 8:09 am

kudzu9 wrote:Does anyone have any predictions about what this bamboo is going to do next? Is this going to be a survivor of flowering, or what?

Hi Kudzu9,

Nobody knows, what your Nitida is going to do next. But I know, what this plant is going to be pretty soon: DEAD!
We all have to face it - time for the old nitida is over. We should put our focus on the new seedlings now. And it is a big rip off, that some nurseries are still selling nitidas.

Happy bamboo-growing!

VanDell (also waiting for his nitida to flower)

CadyG · Post by **CadyG** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 2:30 pm

I naively bought two young "Anceps" clones a couple of years ago, and then found that established Anceps stands were flowering last year. The plants are still not very big or established, so it will be interesting to see how long they develop before they start to flower.

ocimum_nate · Post by **ocimum_nate** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 4:59 am

I am going to get some Fargesia nitida from Fred this spring. I was aware that it could potentially go to flower so I asked him if his had flowered. He told me it hadn't yet. Which brings me to my next question. Is there anything that can be done to ensure that a flowering results in viable seeds? I really would enjoy the fun of growing a new generation and selecting ones that can handle a tough environment like Utah.

kudzu9 · Post by **kudzu9** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 5:13 am

Just my opinion, but I think bamboos that flower are only listening to their internal rhythms, and I don't think that you can encourage viable seeds any more than you can discourage flowering. I've harvested what looked to be good seed from a F. nitida, and not a one produced a seedling. I got some more seed from a friend and had some limited success. Both batches of seeds looked the same to me.

ocimum_nate · Post by **ocimum_nate** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 6:15 am

Kudzu
What I was getting at was if spreading pollen by hand instead of wind or other ways have been tried. Also wondering if self incompatability also plays a factor?

How many seedling have you been able to produce from your friends seeds? Also I was wondering if the seeds were from the same cultivar? Perhaps viability is tied to particular cultivars.

kudzu9 · Post by **kudzu9** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 6:50 am

nate-
Good point...you're forcing me to think. I did a Google search for "bamboo +pollen" and it turned up almost 200,000 hits! Only checked out the first few, but several articles suggested -- not surprisingly -- that having bees around helped get more viable seed. I also turned up this INBAR report on Bamboo Hybridization that looks pretty interesting, but I'm not ready to pony up $73 for it:
http://www.vsppub.com/books/misce/cbk-AManBamHyb.html

boonatick · Post by **boonatick** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 2:28 pm

Kudzu9,
If the wild one where you got yours is not too far I would think about grooming the erea around it and keep an eye out for new seelings there,just a thought,,,I saw a list somewhere about (kind of a rreport) verified flowerings in the U.S.A. ,,,anyone know where that is?

Post by **needmore** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 3:58 pm

Betty Shor maintains a flowering database but I do not know where or if it is 'viewable'. Her son is a member of this forum so perhaps he will see this and chime in.

kudzu9 · Post by **kudzu9** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 7:21 pm

boonatick-
I had thought of that, too. Unfortunately, this piece of property now has a new owner who has it fenced off. I'm crazy about collecting bamboo, but don't want to end up like Cheney's hunting partner!

kstanwick · Post by **kstanwick** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 2:26 am

Nate you mentioned Fred....Anyone hear from him at all?? I know hes a member but was wondering how he is making out....Just a thought here and feel free to disagree but does anyone know if a plant is starting to go to seed, then its environment can be forced for it to do something else....like giving it extra Nitrogen...I know this can be done with more annual style plants....curious if anyone has tried it with any of their flowering boos.