Winter 2014/2015

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canadianplant
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Re: Winter 2014/2015

Post by canadianplant »

Thanks John

I left mine unprotected, but its alive was just wondering when to expect some growth. Im going to baby it this year.

As for the palm, the C9 lights give of tons of heat, but the new LED ones not so much. Its pretty good to see that it survived with minimal protection. I would use heated pipe tape or C9 lights if you can find them. Some one on another forum uses these and gets washys to survive in iowa this way.
johnw
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Re: Winter 2014/2015

Post by johnw »

I don't think they're LED, the bulbs have a pointed tip as best as I remember Nicholas. I'll ask my friend what kind they are.

john
johnw coastal Nova Scotia
Rufledt
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Re: Winter 2014/2015

Post by Rufledt »

this winter was bad for me. Even protected I think I may have lost decora, prominens, and S3. The prominens and S3 were really big, healthy divisions, too. Before I replace them I need a much better winter strategy... They might come back, some of the exposed rhizome on the prominens looks fine, but it topkilled, and the S3 nearly topkilled, it kept only 3 leaves and one culm, though the culm's branches are all dead and the buds don't look good, either. They might not be dead, but they haven't done anything yet and I suspect they got heavily damaged. The decora only kept 2 culms, but those are slowly dying back down to the ground...

On the plus side my 'harbin' is upsizing by a lot, despite being used as a winter snack for some rodents. Spectabilis, too, is having a good year despite a vole burrowing under ALL of the existing culms last winter. All the new shoots are away from the main clump, so I suspect that little bugger ate all the shoot buds while he was eating all the roots... A couple years ago i got a parvifolia division from Steve with a huge root system, and it didn't do much last year, but this year it's sending up a few culms, one of which is almost an inch thick! it currently only has 2 small culms, 3' by maybe the diameter of a pencil. I guess it was just waiting for the right moment to upsize!

Bissetii isn't doing anything, but it did keep half it's leaves and all the branches/culms. The groundcover ones are coming back fine except for sasa hayatae, but it might be early for that, same for the nitidas which releafed but still haven't sent up shoots.
SammyJ
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Re: Winter 2014/2015

Post by SammyJ »

I'm in roughly zone 5 in British Columbia, Canada. I find Bisetti for the 5 years that I've had it has been the last Bamboo to shoot. It's probably for the best since it's been hot and cold this spring (mostly hot) and I've had quite a few aborted shoots from other Bamboo in my yard. Wind in the winter here is what top kills everything. Nuda gets devastated by wind quickly. Bisetti stays 70% green here and I usually just top all the culms in the spring. We usually get lots of snow and I find that helps keep things green come spring. No snow and windy means a lot of dead bamboo here. I do not protect anything at all. Total waste of time I find. I'd rather just think it out every spring and make it look as good as possible. I'm getting 5th year leap. Nothing too exciting until this year.
Rufledt
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Re: Winter 2014/2015

Post by Rufledt »

Yeah the weather here is hot/cold a lot too this year. Just last week we had near 90's, and tonight we have a frost warning. :cry: So far the only shoots up are aureosulcata and parvifolia, and i think those shoots can handle a light frost (forecast says low of 34f, so not even freezing)

My plants didn't get any wind damage last winter since they were tarped, but we had a record number of days below 0F, weeks in a row well below freezing so the tarp just didn't cut it.

A couple plants i put on the deck got wind damage recently, though. Bambusa multiplex basically defoliated completely with one overnight storm, and a basil plant and 2 peppers look like crap now. It wasn't even cold that night!
stevelau1911
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Re: Winter 2014/2015

Post by stevelau1911 »

Based on what I have observed from the past 2 winters, top kill does usually downsize the size of the culms however the number of culms as well as the foliage mass does not necessarily decrease due to a greater number of culms. That means that the size should come right back with a milder winter.

The ones that were successfully tarped generally put out larger culms as expected. The one downside to this is a limited number of new shoots as my parvifolia is only producing around 20 of them this year.
canadianplant
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Re: Winter 2014/2015

Post by canadianplant »

Well, its official: After 6 years, -37C temps and surviving shipping all the way from BC, my alata is dead. Thanks for getting me into gardening. On the plus side, my nitida i plated last year managed to survive. It is branching about 3 inches above the ground but no shoots yet. I vaguely remember it shooting mid july to frost last year.
dependable
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Re: Winter 2014/2015

Post by dependable »

Too bad about the alata, time to try P bissetti, that is the most cold hardy runner I know of.
johnw
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Re: Winter 2014/2015

Post by johnw »

Before and after shots.

On May 5th I saw one of our nitida NG seedlings in a friend's garden, it got some broken culms form all the ice and snow this past winter. I thought I should tell her to trash it. Yesterday it looked rather good and glad I kept my mouth shut for a change.
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Fargesia nitida @ Hammonds Plains Halifax-20150503-04897.jpg
Fargesia nitida NG Evers IMG-20150704-06338.jpg
johnw coastal Nova Scotia
canadianplant
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Re: Winter 2014/2015

Post by canadianplant »

Always nice to see a recovery like that.

Depedable, cant find a canadian dealer for bisseti, besides canadas bamboo world. I have heard to many tales of bamboo mites and want to avoid bringing it here. I will say, the information on the site has improved drastically, they now give above AND below ground hardiness ratings, which seem to be quite accurate for the most part.
tncry
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Re: Winter 2014/2015

Post by tncry »

Well, I just got back from the cottage in PEI. I would have said that Bissetii was the hardiest but this past winter my Bissetii was killed to the ground. It has only shot up small survival shoots. From 12 feet tall to 4 feet tall. 20 feet away spectabilis managed to keep some green leaves under the snow and it shooting over 24 new culms. Many of which are thickness of my thumb.

To throw a complete curve ball. The opposite was true three winters ago. Bissetii did well and upsized considerably and the spectabilis had to be cut to the ground. Both plants are treated the same but Bissetii had a slightly more sheltered location. There is something else at play beyond winter.
Sorry no pics. I didn't have the time to clean up the weeds around the boo.

Second best performer is aureocaulis.

Alata was killed to ground under tarps and so slow to upsize. Why less vigorous than its mutant cousins?

Murielae and nitida were obvious top performers.
TC


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johnw
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Re: Winter 2014/2015

Post by johnw »

Regular old Phyllostachys aureosulcata which we thought had frozen to the ground at a friend's is slowly re-leafing. Boy these aureosulcatas do not like having their leaves burnt off and why do they take forever to replace them? Seems like aureosulcata itself is not a good choice here - Speci, Aureocaulis etc. are much better doers.

johnw - +19c @ 21.11.
johnw coastal Nova Scotia
Alan_L
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Re: Winter 2014/2015

Post by Alan_L »

Interesting John. When all of my bamboos defoliated in the winter of '13-'14, all of my Phyllostachys leafed out again by the end of May -- including Yellow Groove, Spectabilis, and Ph. aureosulcata 'Aureocaulis'.
johnw
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Re: Winter 2014/2015

Post by johnw »

Just an update on the tallest 'Rufa' here, the 10 footer. Went out to see it Saturday night the friends say not a scratch on it all winter. It's in a pretty protected spot. They are closer to the open Atlantic than here in Halifax where we saw a few burnt leaves at -17.8c whereas 20km inland 'Rufa' froze back at -22c.

22c here and feels like 28c.
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Fargesia dracocephala 'Rufa' Halifax-20150725-06605.jpg
johnw coastal Nova Scotia
tncry
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Re: Winter 2014/2015

Post by tncry »

What are they feeding that thing?


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