Is my bamboo dying?
 

I recently (late April) planted 3 large bamboo's in my garden, they had been stood in the pots they were bought in for around 3 months.

IF you look at the picture you can see two are looking fine but the central plant is looking a little worse for wear.

They have all been planted exactly the same, with the same slow release fertiliser and compost.

They are very well watered and are in a south facing garden.

Could this be just temporary or has it gone to the great garden centre in the sky?

Any pointers would be appreciated.

http://images.helms-deep.co.uk/bamboo.jpg

Regards

Tony

Is my bamboo dying?
 

"tonymurphy30" wrote in message
...

I recently (late April) planted 3 large bamboo's in my garden, they had
been stood in the pots they were bought in for around 3 months.

IF you look at the picture you can see two are looking fine but the
central plant is looking a little worse for wear.

They have all been planted exactly the same, with the same slow release
fertiliser and compost.

They are very well watered and are in a south facing garden.

Could this be just temporary or has it gone to the great garden centre
in the sky?

Any pointers would be appreciated.

http://tinyurl.com/mtur26

Regards

Tony




--
tonymurphy30
I don't think it's unusual for newly repotted bamboo to llook like the
middle pot -- keep in mind it may take a year for new shoots to show up, so
don't throw it away until at least another growing season has gone by --

The first year it sleeps
the second year it creeps
the third year it leaps --

Is my bamboo dying?
 

I am in similar though not identical situation. We live in Chicago.

Last autumn we bought a few bamboo plants in pots (brand Monrovia).

We had no room indoors, and the store recommended that we winter them
in an unheated garage, giving very little water but no food. We that
and took them out in the Spring. However, they haven't come back to
life at all, although I can't pronounce them dead with any confidence.

How long should I wait, and how should I treat them, re food/water etc.
They get a few hours of sun everyday.

"Monrovia" brand bamboo is actually not bamboo, rather it is a shrub in the barberry family which has acquired the confusing name of "heavenly bamboo". It is properly called Nandina domestica http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nandina. It is said to be suitable for hardiness zones 6 to 11. I don't know what Chicago is, but I guess it might not be as much as 6. In the SE USA, the plant is an invasive weed, so you can see that you are some way away from its preferred growing conditions.

All you can do is wait, and if it is dead it is dead. It probably didn't like the lack of light in the garage. I'm not sure it is such a special plant to be worth the effort of overwintering indoors each year.

Why not try real bamboo? There's someone on bambooweb growing real bamboo in Michigan, so I reckon you might get away with it in Chicago, especially if you benefit from the urban heat island. The hardiest true bamboos are typically said to be OK down to about -25C or even -28C (roughly -10F to -20F), in the ground, but I think the Michigan man sometimes gets away with worse - snow cover is of course a help in insulating the plants, even if you lose some of the top-growth in a bad year.

Of course, you have to choose really hardy bamboos, and ones that won't mind your warm Chicago summers. The slightly bad news is that most of the suitable bamboos are in the Phyllostachys family, which are a bit invasive in places with a warm summer, so build some underground structure to contain them in advance. Some of the mountain bamboos in the Fargesia family are both very hardy and non-invasive, but in the US cultivation is usually confined to the NE and NW coastal areas as they don't like excessively warm summers; you'd need a cool shady spot for one, and probably not very easy to get hold of. You'll find hardiness ratings of specific species on the American Bamboo Society website.