I am not confident in my in my answer to this question ... not an expert nor
did I stay in a Holiday Inn last night!

But ... I beleive that it is true that when bamboo flowers the whole plant
dies after it has gone to seed. New shoots do not emerge from the rhizomes
of the old plant.

I do not know if cutting off the flowers saves the plant but I doubt it.
Sounds too easy!

Using multiple plants as a starting point does not solve the problem because
all plants in the species will flower in the same year. This is one of the
mysteries of bamboo. The flowering cycle can be very long (maybe several
decades) but when it happens (it is not precisely predictable and not
exactly a certain number of years) all of the plants in that species world
wide flower and die. Planting a grove with more than one species (rather
than just multiple plants) can prevent a total disaster.

I have heard of people saving a flowering baboo by cutting up some rhizomes
into small sections and replanting these, but this would not save the
existing plant.

Again ... I might be wrong on all of these points ... but it iswhat I have
been told.

PC








"RainLover" wrote in message
...
I've heard many times that once a grove of bamboo flowers it will die,
but I have a few questions:

1. Do all the Culms die, but the rhizomes shoot new culms up the
following season?

2. if you cut off any flowers when they start, will that save the
grove?

3. if you start off with, say, 4 or 5 different individual plants and
20 years later one flowers, will just that plant (and where ever it
spread) die off or will all the original plants?

Any other information or links to this topic would be appreciated. We
don't have anything flowering now, but we'd hate to put in all the
effort just to have all of a grove DIE one year.

THANKS!

James, Port Orchard, Washington, USA, Earth

www.jameskelseystudios.com