Growing Bambusa lako and G. atro - Houston TX South

[bubbaboo]

I planted two B. lako in 2001. They came from Florida. One was planted in Austin and grew quite vigorously but died the first winter - dead did not return at all the next year. However the second one was planted in Houston and is quite vigorous to this day. The one in Houston has had some "help from man" on a few cold nights but I am not sure that was even necessary. a recent photograph is attached.
I have both B. lako (new this year) and G. atroviolacea (transplant I have owned since 2001). These two plants are in my back yard a few miles South of Houston, Texas and I anticipate some success with both varities. Time will tell and a couple of mild winters on the front of this experiment will be appreciated.

Bambusa lako
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/634/thumbs/Lako_August_2005.jpg See photo (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=2180) http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/634/thumbs/Lako_Coke_082005.jpg See photo (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=2179)

Gigantochloa atroviolacea
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/633/thumbs/B_Atroviolacea_082005.jpg See photo (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=2178)

[Mark Meckes]

Hi bubbaboo,
I've always found it especially interesting to have a plant or two growing at the fringe zone of their hardiness rating, and wherever in the world we live, there are plants of this category.
The challenge, in both attaining a reasonably sized landscape plant, and in harvesting reasonable quality culm materials, is to get at least three years of mild winters.
Perhaps it's because weather is so changeable, and there are periods of time where we get milder winters and pleasant surprises with our bamboo.

Perhaps it's because their survival, more so then the 'iron-clads', stands out in our memories, a reminder of mild, or brutal seasons of the past.

And there's always the factor that even if top growth is killed to the ground, if the bamboo had healthy roots and rhizomes, protected from a hard freeze, that the plant will most likely re-sprout the next spring.

However they may grow quite differently starting over, forming a shrub-like thicket, often wider than tall, and herein is my biggest problem - we just don't have any space to grow any more widely unpredictable plants :(

Anyhow, if the tops of your plants are top-killed by cold, but the branch buds on the lower portion of the culms have viable buds, and if you have a large number of them, some of those culms could be used for propagation, ie node cuttings made from them will grow into a new plant.

Currently not growing these two species in Austin.
~ Mark

[tiareman]

I am groing lako as well- how cold did it get that winter that killed yours?