My Phyllostachys Aurea is in flower!
 

Hi, I am looking for a bit of help. I have had a tall Phyllostachys Aurea sitting in a large pot for the last year and a half. I am just about to plant it in the ground but noticed that it had flowered over the summer. I had not seen it in flower, but half the canes have seed on them. I was quite amazed! I am wondering if anyone else's Aurea is in flower? I have heard that plants when stressed can flower. Could this be what happened? It is quite a large specimen, about 15 foot high. I have been very attentive with watering and feeding.

I am now wondering if I should plant this bamboo at all as from what I have read, it will most likely die. It did send up new shoots this year, but they were not near the size of the canes from last year.

Any advice?

I suggest posting this on bambooweb.info • Bamboo Forum which is the active bamboo forum populated by many bamboo experts, and say where in the world you are located. In the absense of reports of gregarious flowering, it seems likely to be stress flowering, as you recognise. In which case, if you remove the stress, it will likely recover. You say it's a large bamboo, you've had it in the pot a year and a half, and the new culms are small. It could well just have eaten all there is to eat in there now and filled the pot up.

Thanks for that. Will check out the link.

why don't you have a try on google?