Anyone willing to donate some bamboo around Pittsburgh?

[amishbob]

Hello,

First time poster. I am looking to get my hands on some bamboo to grow outside on my deck in large planters. I am concerned about the success of bamboo over the winter so rather dropping a bunch of money up front I'd love to get some free bamboo and see how it does. Perhaps maybe even burying the pots over winter.

I'll come by and dig. Anyone willing to help me out? I am a landscape architect so I understand the importance of containment.

Thanks!

[needmore]

Amishbob - welcome to the forum, now is probably the worst possible time of year to dig bamboo as it is energy depleted from producing new culms so if you can wait to dig until perhaps mid-August or so in your area it would be much better. You might consider looking for divisions someone has that are already potted and can you offer anything in trade - other plants, services etc?

I don't recall seeing posts from someone in the Pgh area posting here, there is a nursery or in PA if you are willing to buy plants.

BTW - As you may already be aware, you will not be able to over winter bamboo in pots in your area, unless as suggested on Gweb forum, you bury them. I've done some work in Pgh and am familiar with the winter weather, you can grow bamboo in-ground there for certain and it will do pretty well. Some years it will be killed back but you will be able to establish it pretty well over time and have nice groves.

[stevelau1911]

I would suggest taking a drive around the neighborhoods in your city to see if anyone is growing bamboo. You'll probably see many houses with yellow groove and you might find a few other common species. After writing down their locations, you should probably wait for the shoots to fully leaf out before digging and make sure you get as big a division as you can transport. They'll probably let you have some if they already have a mature grove.

There is someone on another forum from pittsburgh(Cgnodles) who grows a few species which you might be able to get a good dig off of, I think he has yellow groove, nuda, vivax, moso, rufa, heteroclada and maybe more. Here's the link. http://www.bamboocraft.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3851


You can also check out the bamboomap which has the location of forum members and it looks like there's 2 bamboo growers very close to pittsburg. http://www.bambooweb.info/bb/mapbb.php

Even if you can't get any bamboos from local growers you could always take a bamboo road trip and find someone who has many species which would make it worth the trip especially when you don't have any bamboo yet. This would be cheaper than buying lots of bamboo if you can find someone with enough species. A truck with a trailer sounds about right.

[amishbob]

Sorry for the late reply.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[rfgpitt]

amishbob,
I updated my list of what I have (currently all are in pots) - and should be able to get you several small starts after shooting season. About the only thing I've seen in the South Hills area is phyllostachys aureosulcata / yellow groove. I'm above Canonsburg lake right off of rt 19 & 79. All I'd want is some bags of dirt and/or some bigger landscape pots. Send me a message and I'll get back to ya -Rick