None of the prior years culms are rough; of the many new culms, the ones that are the size of last years are smooth but every one of the larger ones (still narrow, not quite little finger diameter) is as rough as my Spectabilis. This is more rough than dimpled. The new culms are also a very dark violet color on the sunny side of the grove. This species seems to run but also produce tons of culms, and it should be an outstanding screen/hedge in the 8-12 foot range.If you check out the Decora shoots in my post labeled something like 'more shoots', you can see how crazy/long/wavy the tip blades get when the shoots are not very tall and I would think that this might be something else that could steer you towards or away from Decora.