Winter damage observations

[needmore]

David, thanks for the information, I can tell from the survivors that you must have stayed north of 0F all winter. Simonii in my observation is about a +10F bamboo showing leaf damage shortly thereafter, the Nigra forms here may actually have lived up to or slightly exceeded their hardiness this year.

I have avoided Amabilis but do have Longiligula which Bamboo Garden describes as similar to but notably hardier than Amabilis. It is not hardy at all, top hardy only to around +15F. It keeps coming back strong so I may try the Amabilis anyway and see how they compare.

Okuboi seems to be the only Semiarundinaria with some green leaves remaining, it usually is the F Viridis but it is pretty cooked - if you don't have Okuboi let me know I've got PLENTY in the ground.

Vivax top killed last winter at +3F but I see a few viable buds this year so maybe it also is getting tougher with age as are several species I have.

BTW my Viridis has never done the yellow leaf thing and I suspect mine came from the same supplier as yours. It has only wintered over once in 5 winters and I wonder if that somehow has kept it from turning yellow in the summer?

[David]

Brad,
We got down to 8*F on several occasions at the house which holds the high ground. The creek bottom almost certainly was a degree or two colder, but is well protected from the wind. We had longer frozen periods than usual, and this with cold dry north winds seemed to be what caused more damage this year than others. I'm learning more about hardiness, and it most certainly multifactoral in nature. Protection from wind is huge as my aurea family demonstrated this year. Plants that are three years in the ground are clearly more hardy. I'm not sold on mulch. It certainly did not help me during the long frozen spells which is when I needed it to work. I'm seeing also that heavily mulched plants tend to send out shallow or surface rhizomes in the mulch which is not good in terms of plant support. I'm considering going mulchless(new word?) in the future. I irrigate during droughts so its summer advantage is minimal.

I didn't mention before but the aureosulcata family all look good with none to minimal leaf burn. The spectabilis looked best of all.

Brad I think it would be interesting to make hardiness ratings more than just a line, but more of a range under various conditions. I know you've thinking that way for several years. We certainly need a better method of describing hardiness.

[bamboozal]

David and Brad,

After looking at this winter's damage to my boo, I've been thinking pretty much along the same lines. The temps certainly don't tell the full story and it's hard to give a quantitative figure to when damage occurs due to wind and sun. I've come to the slow realisation that perhaps I'm asking to much of my boo. I have an exposed garden which I'm trying to shelter with bamboo but unfortunately, nothing is sheltering the bamboo in its formative years. This year, I'm thinking of introducing totally hardy local evergreens within the garden to shelter some of the boo.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your observations and experiences.

[sobrikay]

In our climate in Brisbane most young plants require shading in order to establish themselves. So rather than needing greenhouses we need shadehouses to grow all the plants we do.

Many understorey type plants like my tropical palms for example require shading and when they were young I constructed a sail made of 50% or 75% shadecloth depending on the species and ironically held up by bamboo poles.

You might want to consider a sail or a tent made of shadecloth to protect the plants while young. It is much quicker and easier than waiting for other plants to grow first

See: http://www.thenaturalhome.com/shadecloth.htm


You would want the lighter types probably.

[BruceLofland]

A picture is worht a thousand words, so here are my pictures:

Phyllostachys atrovaginata


Phyllostachys rubromarginata


Phyllostachys vivax 'aureocaulis'

[Eastlandia]

BruceLofland, your P. Vivax Aureocaulis looks exactly the same as mine. Wonderful temperatures, no?
Thank goodness spring is just around the corner!
-eastlandia

[CadyG]

Making note that my Indocalamus tesselatus has stayed green all winter with no leaf burn. Likewise, the Pleioblastus simonii has withstood temperatures of +4F for a couple of January nights, as well as slightly warmer temps (+10 to +12F) with dry gusty winds. It is free of burn too. I'm, quite frankly, surprised.

The Phyllostachys nuda and P. mannii 'Decora' looked desiccated during those days of cold wind, but when the temps have gone above freezing, the moisture returned to the leaves and they don't look damaged. That happened last year and I thought the leaves would die and fall in the spring, but they remained alive. Even the Shibatea kumasaca greened up again after looking a bit dry in the worst stretch of January.

We had a near +60F day today, and everything looks like it never saw winter. The weather for the upcoming week is supposed to be 30s to 40s, with a couple nights in the teens, but if that's the worst we get for the rest of the winter, I'm feeling decidedly upbeat about having all of my more finicky 'boos come through with flying colors.

[Mike McG]

Until about 2 weeks ago, all my bamboo except B. oldhamii and a few new Bambusa shoots, were showing almost no winter damage. Only the B. oldhamii was burnt with about 25% of leaf area still green. Up until mid February the temperature here hadn't dropped below about the mid 20's.

On 16 Feb 07 the temperature dropped down to 19F in the early morning with clear skies. The B. oldhamii is now completely toasted and I will have to see if it has lost its culms as it did last winter. The B. pervariabilis 'Viridistriatus' and B. dolichomerithalla 'Silverstripe' that were planted in Mar '06 now only have about 15% of the leaf area still green. My B. tuldoides and B. t. 'Ventricosa? have about 75% of of the leaf area still green. However, these had seen 18F several times in other winters without any significant damage so I think with the clear skies there was significant radiation cooling as well. My B. t. ?Ventricosa Kimmei' is small and still in relatively good shape as are my various B. multiplex bamboo. All the runners are OK except for minor wind damage.

Mike McG near Brenham TX

[Iowaboo]

Here is a pic of one of my nurseries that has 3 bamboo species in it.


And a pic of a old bus losing the war

[rfgpitt]

Lance,
They look beautiful with all the snow. Must be the area just off the driveway eh?

None of mine look as good as Bruce's atrovaginata pic he posted on the 3rd We keep getting dustings and me mudder-in-law just said we could get 1-3" of snow tomorrow.