Hi MattUPBooMatt wrote:Leo, you are still around! I've read several threads you have talked about your aureosulcata in, but I can't seem to recall if you have any other species? If so, could I trouble you for a short list of your hardiness experiences, and heights, as compared to your Y.G.
Yep, still around. Like many others, my hobby, fascination with bamboo has evolved over time. I got over the ''hoarder'' instinct in terms of trying to cram as many species as possible in a little 50 x 80 foot city lot. My obsessions with orchids and bonsai have been consuming most of my ''blogging time''. Bamboo has been largely relegated to keeping what I have left without trying to get more.
I've learned a fair amount about what survives in zone 5b, between Chicago and Milwaukee. I live in Zion IL, roughly where the Illinois-Wisc border drops into Lake Michigan, about 3 miles south of the border.
So what do I still have? I planted my first bamboo in 1982,
Phyllostachys aureosulcata - the normal form. - This has thrived, as I said above. Average 12 to 18 feet culms. I get complete top kill, maybe 2 out of 5, or so winters. New shoots from rhizomes usually meet average size, 12 to 18 feet tall. Culm diameter of the tallest is just barely one inch in diameter. All in all a great bamboo, my planting is 32 feet long by 30 inches wide, usually a couple hundred culms. The rhizomes have been reliably hardy right through -25 F (roughly -32 C). Once the planting reached about 15 years old, the soil bed was getting really dense, with old woody rhizomes that were no longer producing shoots. Hardly any room for new to come up. As a result I began removing about a third (a 10 foot section) of the grove at a time. Just had it dug out, replaced the removed soil with fresh ''dirt'', composted manure and purchased topsoil. Immediately the remaining sections of the bed recolonized the removed portion, initially with short fresh culms, but by 3rd summer there was no difference in height of culms in the "renewed" portion. Then I followed up with doing the next segment. So now almost 35 years later the full bed has been removed and regenerated at least once. Unfortunately age has caught up with me, the next round will have to be hired help removing the rhizomes. But when I started, I never thought I'd be in one place long enough to think about having to rejuvenate a grove.
My tastes have changed, from wanting one of each I really only want one of each major ''color type''. From more than 10 feet away, Phyllo aureosulcata visually is basically a plain green bamboo, the yellow groove is pretty dull. I have found Phyllo atrovaginata is a much more handsome ''plain green'' bamboo. Its culms are slightly larger diameter for its height, which gives better visual impact. My planting of Phyllo atrovaginata is fairly young, because I keep having to move it. I wish the ''good spot'' that the aureosulcata is in was vacant. Oh well. I'll find a spot. Seems like Phyllo atrovaginata will mature out in my climate at about 12 to 15 feet, pretty similar to aureosulcata. I imagine the diameter will be about 1 inch in diameter. And the new shoots are the absolute best tasting, sweetest, of all the Phyllostachys I have eaten. Worth planting a larger bed of so that you can dine on it more than just a handful of shoots a year.
Phyllo aureosulcata 'Harbin Inversa' - I planted this one maybe 1995. Confined to a rectangular recycling bin plunged into the ground with only a rim above ground. 'Harbin Inversa' seems every bit as vigorous as the normal type, is definitely equally hardy, and if I had allotted it a larger bed, would likely reach nearly the same size.
I'll continue this thread tomorrow, need to walk away from the laptop right now. Couldn't figure out how to find a ''save as draft'', so rather than retype the above I'll do this in parts.
Leo