A while ago, the National Zoo requested bamboo from local sources to feed the pandas. Here's another article, sometimes silly, but had some interesting info, including: "Last year, for reasons that weren't entirely clear at first, the stands of bamboo the zoo maintains at its Front Royal, Va., ...

P. nuda could get that big there--we saw a huge grove near Philadelphia at the ABS meeting a couple of years ago.

Hi Steve- I have had 'AllGold' several years now. Last year had about 1/4 leaf burn, and the clump still looked pretty good overall. I really like the deep yellow of the culms contrasted with the deep green of its leaves. It's especially great when backlit by the rising or setting sun. You can drop ...

You're not getting 'Felco' and 'Fiskars' mixed up, are you? (I did that!)

So far: Phyllostachys nigra--love those black culms, and it is sizing up well Hibanobambusa tranquillans 'Shiroshima'--it's great to have that tropical foliage in the middle of winter Ph. bambusoides 'AllGold'--spectacular when backlit by the rising or setting sun Honorable mention to Pleioblastus v...

Wow, missed that page. That's a lot of great info!

Some of you probably know this, but others might not--there are two great Phyllostachys references available on-line in PDF files. We are really lucky to have these! One is very old and one is new. The newer one is 'Phyllostachys' by Wang Zhengping and Chris Stapleton, Flora of China 22: 163–180. 20...

That's a nice looking planter! Something I have wondered about before is something with holes/gaps on the sides, so that the rhizomes would grow out the sides (where you could easily trim them) instead of curling around and getting root-bound or going deep. Possibilities would be 8x8x16 cinder block...

Could you tell me which keys you're quoting from? I thought maybe it was Flora of China (http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=125246) but that doesn't appear to match. That looks like adult form Phyllostachys, so you should be able to use the keys on the shoots to (maybe) d...

Wow, there are some over-the-top reactions to Arundo donax. You/they might want to do some research on it, but one source I read a while ago said that farmers in the Western US have been using it since the 1850s or something like that for erosion control. While it spreads, comparing it to kudzu seem...

I've had 3 plants in part-shade for several years. They come up and grow tall every year, but never spread at all! They're in an area that gets lots of water from a storm drain and creek flooding, but also can dry out. Don't know if it's the sun, water or anything else that keeps them from spreading.

Absolutely! In San Diego you can grow lots of great clumpers. At Balboa Park you can see lots of Bambusa vulgaris 'Vittata'. Go to Quail Gardens, which has a great selection of clumpers, and see what you can grow there. bamboo, like any other plant, will get rootbound, so you will have to divide tho...

Thanks for that citation...I was able to find it on the web here . It was interesting to see how far away P. edulis was from the rest of the Phyllostachys--several other genera were closer! Made me wonder if any other research has placed Moso far away from the rest of the genus. ... At the 2005 ABS ...

Here's an article by Jos van der Palen with some info about Gansu 95-2:
http://www.kimmei.com/pu/pu23.htm

P. bambusoides and P. bambusoides 'AllGold'.