Might have to ID a black bamboo

[cngodles]

Since I think I'm getting one. Someone on my local website's messageboard contacted me, told me they have some back bamboo, and want to give me some. They planted it 4 years ago and a little tiny bit cost $125. Lol, highway robbery, but worth it now I guess.

I am assuming it's Phyllostachys nigra. It's nice to see that it survives here.

More to come in the next few days.

[Dean W.]

Mine is going gangbusters w/ new pencil and straw sized shoots. I assume it P. nigra although I’m unsure of what type. Maybe Mark can tell me?

Dean

[Mark Meckes]

I've simplified things by calling any black bamboo I've come across around Austin as Phyllostachys nigra. :)
Maybe one of these years it may be discovered as a new and unique cultivar = Phyllostachys nigra 'Black Gold'
- adaptable to extreme conditions - tough as old boots ;)

It's very difficult to distinguish between the P. nigra cultivars whose main attribute is their changing shades of brown to black, the speed with which they change and their culm size and spacing, because environmental factors can also affect these changes.
The other issue is whether a cultivar is a stable form or does it have a tendency to revert back to it's species form unless these parts are cut out.

[Mark Meckes]

OT ;) ...
A couple decades ago I was providing a grove management service to botanical gardens etc in exchange for plants and poles. I also got various nurseries to sponsor me (help pay for my expenses) in exchange for plants.
They got specimen plants for the equvilant of $10-15.
The nurseries wanted to use the plants for propagation purposes.
Then I noticed one nursery had the P. nigra they got from me listed in their catalog for $300.
The nursery owner told me that if anyone was crazy enough to buy it for $300 he would sell, but really just wanted to get it listed in his catalog while he increased his stock.

I'll culmfess to having bought a tiny sprig of a rare ornamental grass from the nursery a few years hence for $37 which you can now get anywhere for $2-5.
Such is the nature of the flora fashion industry.

Mark

[ShmuBamboo]

Yah, bamboo prices are steep! I have paid zero for all my bamboo collection, save for 2 specimens. Both are blacks. I was at a nursery that was closing up last year and at the back they had these 2 little bamboos not doing so great in one gallon pots. I figured they would be pricey, but I asked anyway. $5 each. To my amazement... I instantly said, "SOLD!" Before the guy next to me could grab them. They are in nice 15 gallon pots now. Slow to grow for a while, then STAND BACK!

I have 3 other large black clumps here on the farm. My girlfriend asked me about them when I moved here. I blinked when I saw that they were blacks. The goats had given them a 'goat haircut' eating all the leaves lower than 6 ft. I fenced them off, and fed them barm muck in a ring and the next year they sent up about 30 shoots each about 15 ft long. I have since moved them out of the pasture area and made them into a house landscape feature.