Division from mature Fargesia 'Rufa'

Ask questions about growing bamboo

Moderator: needmore

Post Reply
Alan_L
Posts: 2966
Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2009 4:13 pm
Location info: 81
Location: St. Louis area

Division from mature Fargesia 'Rufa'

Post by Alan_L »

Has anybody taken divisions from a mature Fargesia 'Rufa' before? Mine is bigger than I expected and I need to regain some walkway space, and I have an idea that the division might look good in another part of the yard -- but I have some questions:

1) Will that division actually look good, or will I have an ugly plant for a couple of years? (This will be a high-visibility area)

2) How hard is it to actually dig this out? There are a lot of dead culms in there still, even though I tried to clean it out before shooting started.

The plant is about 6-7' tall, and 8-9' wide.
User avatar
needmore
Posts: 5008
Joined: Sat Oct 01, 2005 9:14 pm
Location info: 0
Bamboo Society Membership: ABS - America
Location: Kea'au, HI

Re: Division from mature Fargesia 'Rufa'

Post by needmore »

Alan, in my limited experience it was easy, the culms along the edge of the division will likely look crappy so dig a bigger piece than you want and trim the edges back as needed. Should be easy to plunge the shovel in.
Brad Salmon, zone 12B Kea'au, HI
http://www.needmorebamboo.com
dependable
Posts: 1323
Joined: Mon Nov 03, 2008 12:28 am
Location info: 0
Location: Island off Cape Cod Massacusetts
Contact:

Re: Division from mature Fargesia 'Rufa'

Post by dependable »

I never divided a 'Rufra', but have divided 'Robusta'. In that case it would not divide easily with shovel, I used a sawzall, because the old rhizomes and root mass in the center were quite woody.

I would think it would look good after pruning as Brad suggests, and perhaps a season or so to settle in and reestablish its shape.
User avatar
iain
Posts: 133
Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2017 7:33 pm
Location info: 0
Location: Central Scotland

Re: Division from mature Fargesia 'Rufa'

Post by iain »

dependable wrote:I never divided a 'Rufra', but have divided 'Robusta'.
When would the best time be to transplant Robusta this year? Now, just as the branches have leafed out?
Boohoo?
Post Reply