14-08-2003, 06:08 AM
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should I avoid Phyllostachys aurea completely
(david fraleigh) wrote in message . com...
... I have been bitten by the "bamboo bug" and want to have several
groves of large bamboo around the place.. The clumping varieties seem
unlikely as the winters sometimes get down into the mid-teens but the
price of the more desirable runners and even their ability to survive
our hot summers makes them questionable also..
With that in mind does anybody have anything good to say about
Phyllostachys aurea??? I have heard so many horror stories that I
wonder if I am making a mistake to even consider it at all.. What
exactly is it about it that turns it into such a pest.. What defines
an "aggressive" bamboo. Might it be those very qualities that would
make it attractive to a beginner... such as "establishes
easily,inexpensive, thrives, etc." What makes me consider it is that
I don't have to spend hundreds of dollars to obtain it... and that it
obviously does well in this area (North Florida.) There are several
areas where it is growing wild and where I could easily dig up all I
wanted to transplant to here... In my ignorance I think that I could
just plant it somewhere on these thirty acres and keep it under
control by mowing around it..
Mowing is a very effective way to control a running bamboo. Aurea
grows in a tight grove and makes a great privacy hedge, it is very
prolific and very inexpensive.
I started 18 months ago with a small rhizome cutting. I divided it
several times into other containers. In April I had 1 15gal pot and 2
24"x36" pots. When we went to move these to my friends house to make
a screen in front of his house we couldn't move the larger pots in
tact so we cut them up. We removed the pots from the plant and the
rhizome mass and feeder roots were one solid mass, it was the pot
without the pot if you get my drift :-). We hacked these poor plants
up horribly to move them (while shooting). It is now planted into a
pretty solid 12'x3' strip of dirt and is shooting and running like
mad. The tallest culms are a little over 6', new shoots are
threatening to top them.
The more you water it, the faster it spreads and gains height. Once
established it is VERY drought tolerant, but becomes better behaved.
It is probably the most common bamboo in southern California, it is
also the basis for every horror story involving bamboo.
If you have the space and the desire to contain it.. it really is a
great plant, very pretty.
Chris
Chino,CA
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