"Rupert (W.Yorkshire)" writes

"K" wrote in message
...

Someone in urg mentioned their bamboo was flowering, and today my
neighbour pointed out that both his and mine was in flower.

So - what triggers bamboo to flower? Age? A hot summer? Being potbound?

Which particular bamboo?

Dunno! It's got canes with grass like leaves on ;-)
Seriously - it's not black stemmed, yellow stemmed or stripey stemmed,
and the leaves are relatively fine and delicate - about 1/4 inch across
rather than the nearly 1 inch of Pseudosasa. And it's about 5ft high,
growing in a pot.

Is it definitely flowering

Grrr!!!!!
Are you suggesting I can't recognise a grass family flower when I see
one?
Yes, it's flowering.

or are they just showing
extra big leafy bits.
I can't remember which one the chap said was flowering but there appeared to
be some confusion. None of mine are showing signs of flowering yet.
A fargesia murielae (not certain which one) flowered here about 8 years ago
and died slowly. I never really noticed until I saw new seedlings emerging.
AFAIK no one else around reported that they were flowering that year.
Oh yes to answer your original question:-
"The mechanism for the timing of flowering and dying is a phenomenon not yet
understood. It is one of nature's baffling mysteries. "
http://www.bamboogarden.com/when%20bamboo%20flowers.htm

I've done a bit of googling.
There is a common belief that all the bamboos across the year flower in
the same year. This seems not to be true. However, bamboos for
cultivation are vegatatively produced and there seems to be a suggestion
that all the plants of a particular clone will flower at the same age.
Flower and seed production take it out of the plant, so it will look
pretty miserable afterwards and may not recover. Therefore, a mass
flowering is looked upon with alarm - not only is it followed by mass
bamboo deaths, but the glut of bamboo seed can lead to an explosion of
rat populations.




--
Kay