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ShmuBamboo
8th June 2007, 02:16 AM
The species of bamboos that I have are as follows:

Alphonse Karr: Bambusa multiplex 'Alphonse Karr'. Split large one into 5 x 2 gallon pots (RH). Pachymorph. Note: Froze bad this year at 15 degrees F. Lost every leaf. Will sell or trade before next winter here.

Giant Timber: Bambusa oldhamii. 2 plants in 2 gallon pots (NC). Seemingly easy to propigate. Pachymorph. Note: Not cold or wind hearty at all here. Moved to greenhouse. Will sell or trade before next winter.

Marbled: Chimonbambusa marmorea 2 plants, one in 3 gallon pot, one in 1 gallon pot (M). Seems to do well here, probably more cold tolerant than listed. Not quite as sun tolerant as listed; partial shade is better; zone 2. Does not like heat/sun combination.

Square: Chimonbambusa quadrangularis 1 plant in 3 gallon pot (M). Seems to do well here; probably more cold tolerant than listed.

Fountain Bamboo: Fargesia nitida No seeds germinated.

Shibatea kumasaca One plant in 5 a gallon tub (M). Leaves seem to burn pretty bad here in alkaline water and soil. Potted up in acid soil and watering with spring waster instead of well water to recover. RAK?

Shiroshima: Hibanobambusa tranquillans 'Shiroshima' One large 40 gallon pot, 4 in 2-5 gallon pots (NC). Does well anywhere along the west coast. Nice veriegated leaves. ID by Mark M.
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/600/thumbs/DSCN0831.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=4270&cat=600&ppuser=2448)

Candy-Stripe: Himalayacalamus falconeri 'Damarapa' One in a 10 gallon pot (A). Has amusing red, yellow and green colors that occur in wide vertical streaks on culms. Does better in winter here than listed (easilly managed 15 degree F. cold). Pachymorph.

Golden: Phyllostachys aurea Many plants potted and in ground, some huge stands (came with property). Great all-around bamboo, one of the few that has leaves all the way to the ground. Good for screening. This one has a deep golden color here in full sun. Super hearty bamboo.
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/503/thumbs/DSCN0912.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=4466&cat=503&ppuser=2448)

Golden-Golden: Phyllostachys aurea 'Holochrysa' One 2 gal. pot (BG). Not all thet hearty, seems to struggle.

Koi: Phyllostachys aurea 'Koi' One in a 5 gallon pot (F). Sold to me as Inversa, but ID corrected by me. Koi is the inverse of Inversa. Seems to struggle some, but does better than Holochrysa.

Yellow Groove: Phyllostachys aureosulcata One in a 7 gallon tub (F). Does really well here, strong culm and runner growth.

Yellow Crookstem: Phyllostachys aureosulcata 'aureocaulis' One in a 3 gallon tub (D). Looks like it is indeed Yellow Crookstem, as sold to me. Shoots simiar in time and type as other Phy. aureosulcatas that I have, with deep purple culm sheaths.

Alata: Phyllostachys aureosulcata 'Alata' One in a large 10 gallon tub (F). Seemingly the standart 'type' of aureosulcatas with no internode color or variation in culms. Green on green. Has zig-zag culms though. Grows well here.

Giant Japanese Timber: Phyllostachys bambusoides Certainly not vivax, and not dulcis either. Shoots look similar to Phy. bam., and shooting at the same time (E1).

Allgold: Phyllostachys bambusiodes, 'Allgold' Sold as Allgold, and probably is by random leaf stripes and gold-red culm color. One in a 3 gal. pot (D). Recovering from bad soil where I bought it, where it was grown in fir cones, clay balls, wood and concrete chunks! Its a bamboo though, and doing OK.

Castillon: Phyllostachys bambusiodes, 'Castillon' One of several sub-types, seems to be more spindly and prone to some winter die-back that is not temperature related. One in a 15 gallon pot. (RH)
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/617/thumbs/DSCN0911.JPG (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=4498&cat=617&ppuser=2448)

Moso: Phyllostachys edulis 2 plants, one in 5 gallon tub, one in 10 gallon tub (M). Doing well this year, lots of shoots.

Black: Phyllostachys nigra Two in 10 gallon pots that are black 'type' with culms turning black within a year (D). Seems to suffer from leaf scortch a lot more than other types of black that I have here.

Black: Phyllostachys nigra 'Punctata' 7 plants, 3 x 50 gallon size in ground (SR), came with property. 4 more in 5-10 gallon tubs (E2). The closest ID for this type is 'Punctata', as it has culms that are yellow for the first year, then spotted black the second year which makes it look like a ripe banana peel, and then some culms turn black the third year, and some stay with the ripe banana peel look. This type is larger and taller than type, and it is what the locals in the PNW call 'Black". The ones in the ground here were before we lived here, and the ones I have in pots are from a large bamboo collection that was in the ground for over 50 years in Florence, OR.

Black: Phyllostachys nigra 'Daikokichu' One in a 15 gallon pot from a California collection (A). Said to turn black faster than type, this one has a nice green leaf with no bleaching, and it seems to be more healthy than any other types of black that I have.

Henon: Phyllostachys nigra, 'Henon' Four plants, one 50 gallon tub, 3 x 5 gallon tubs (NC). Given to me and said to be golden, obviously was not golden. Has yellow hugh culms here, tall, leaves like typical black bamboo. Posted here, ID by Mark M.
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/529/thumbs/DSCN0838.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=4271&cat=529&ppuser=2448)

Nuda: Phyllostachys nuda One plant in 7 gallon tub (RH). Happy this year, busting out with several large culms. Has zig-zag culms that are consistant. The real Stone Bamboo.

Phyllostachys violascens One plant in a large pot (OC). Not doing great, re-potted, was in too much bark in original soil. There are two types of this that I have seen, one is streaked with a more violet color, one is streaked with more brown. This seems to be the more violet of the two.

Phyllostachys vivax Several plants, 4 x 5 gallon pots, 4 x 15 gallon tubs (E1). Hearty bamboo, planted in the ground here, sent runners directly toward the house, so pulled out and repotted. Thin walls, some culm damage and breakage in high winds.

Phyllostachys vivax 'Aureocaulis' Two in 3 gallon pots (BG, A). Same as vivax, but with a gold culm with random green streaks. Nice looking plants and in high demand (prices have gone way up since I bought them).

Phyllostachys XXX One in 3 gallon tub (D). Yellow to red stems, called "tortoise shell" at the nursery that it came from (not Moso or Golden). May be Nuda, with the zig-zag culms. Need to ID after shoots get bigger.

Dwarf Fern Leaf: Pleioblastus distichus Two in one gallon pots (RH). Short growing bamboo, good for ground cover.

Pleioblastus gauntlettii (AKA: Pl. humilis 'Pumilus') 4 x 2 gallon pots, 3 x 1 gallon pots (E1). Some debate as to the actual ID of this bamboo, this one seems to be the less aggressive type. grows to about 4 feet tall, has purple culms. Ned at Bamboo Garden said, "I will not have any of that!" I do not know why. It is not as invasive as indicated.

Arrow: Pseudosasa japonica Several in various size pots 1 to 5 gallon in size, and one in a 50 gallon tub (NC). Nice classic bamboo, rather aggressive and spreading habit though. Does well in full sun.

Giant Arrow: Pseudosasa longiligula ID by Mark M. 3 x 50 gallon tubs, one in 10 gallon tub (E2). Less tolerant of full sun than P. japonica, leaves belach out in full sun. Would be happy in type 3 sunlight. Also taller than P. japonica, growing over 20 feet when I dug it out of a yard in Eugene, OR. Robust, and like japonica, rather aggressive.
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/767/thumbs/DSCN0836.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showgallery.php?cat=767&ppuser=2448)

Narihira or Temple: Semiarundinaria fastuosa 2 in 15 gallon pots, one in the ground (escaped rhizome) (RH). Nice tall, narrow growing bamboo. Similar to habit to Phyllostachys. Aggressive runners, they have deep rhizomes.

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Mark Meckes
16th June 2007, 07:35 PM
I enjoyed reading about your collection ShmuBamboo!
Thanks for taking the initative to post about it here.
I've added some links to the pics you've posted for you and also added your Giant Arrow to the list.
Some new things are in the works for creating a portfolio which I'll be writing about soon, but meanwhile feel free to edit /add to your collection and I'm always glad to assist with links etc.

Cheers,
Mark

ShmuBamboo
16th July 2007, 08:56 PM
I now have over 20 types of boos here. Not all are identified, but I am working on feeding and watering them so that they will grow a lot bigger and tell me what they are! More from my brother's collection, and more from some odd-ball nurseries and collections from around Portland. Many people out there list boos by common names that are not always easy to match to the species names. Terms like yellow, golden, and inversa are used on a lot of different boos.

Mark Meckes
17th July 2007, 02:20 PM
Wow! that's quite a growing collection!
Phyllostachys aurea 'Holochrysa' is on my wish list too as I hear an established grove positively glows with a golden golden aura.

Phyllostachys edulis 'Heterocycla' ... I hope this is what you've got.
Some years ago a pot of this sold at an ABS auction for $7000.
I kid you not :eek:
I heard from someone that the new growth reverted back to regular Moso, but this was some time ago (5+yrs?) and maybe it re-reverted.

ShmuBamboo
18th July 2007, 04:26 PM
Wow! that's quite a growing collection!
Phyllostachys aurea 'Holochrysa' is on my wish list too as I hear an established grove positively glows with a golden golden aura.

Yah, I went to Bamboo Garden to get a Golden golden and Vivax aureocaulis, because I wanted 'real' ones. So many golden boos are mislabeled and incorrectly named. The Koi I got from a private collection before was (and still is) labeled 'Phy. aurea Inversa.' My brother and I verified it as a Koi though. Even the guy that sold it thought it might be an inversa of Inversa, but he did not realize what type that was (read the book, dummy!). I had to wrangle BG out of the vivax, as they were out of small ones, and I had not room in my truck for a larger copy. I told them that I can care for a rooted cutting, so they took me into the cutting greenhouse and we selected the best of several hundred. $30 for a 2 gallon pot, and a peek at the propagation and growing operation. ;)

ShmuBamboo
18th July 2007, 05:11 PM
Phyllostachys edulis 'Heterocycla' ... I hope this is what you've got.
Some years ago a pot of this sold at an ABS auction for $7000.
I kid you not :eek:
I heard from someone that the new growth reverted back to regular Moso, but this was some time ago (5+yrs?) and maybe it re-reverted.

Dunno. It was $15. I got two of them really, as I repotted it and found two rooted rhyzomes in there. This place had gobs of stuff, and supposedly anything that was marked on the pot was/is what type it is. The problem was that it was all marked with common names, not species (albeit even the species are moving around a lot of late). They had gobs of Moso and Vivax. This was a collection of some guy that was well known in the nursery trade. They asked me if I knew of him (I forget his name, and did not know who he was). Many pots were unmarked. They also had several types of larger boos there that I have been looking for, like Harbin. I almost bought a Buddy Belly (easy to ID) but it is too cold here for that.

If they are indeed Tourtise shell, great! I had no idea what that stuff sells for. If they are just Moso, that is OK. They might be something else all together, as there are common names for boos, and then there are other common names for boos. Moso is not on my want list, but what the heck. Seems to be a lot of odd-ball boo growers around here that do not know what they have. Or they "know" what they have, but they are wrong. Hence my joining this group to ID my boos, half of which were labeled/named something other than what they really are. I re-ID'd my brother's Henon that was lost in his collection last week. He had potted it up and wandered off to do something else, and the plant was an 'unknown' until now. I mark all pots BEFORE I repot them with a Mean Streak marker. Something I learned from years of growing and repotting orchids. At least with orchids, they bloom every year so I know what they are even if I lose a name. Jouvinille boos are something else. They all look the same when they are babies. Then WHAM! A 4 inch culm from what was supposed to be a little house plant...

Mark Meckes
18th July 2007, 05:26 PM
Yep, the common name of Golden Bamboo for Phyllostachys aurea is a bit misleading because the culms only turn "golden" after a few years if they are exposed to full sunlight. With a larger grove it's generally only the tops that turn golden with the rest remaing shades of green.

Phyllostachys aurea - Golden Bamboo ;)
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/503/thumbs/PaureaAuTX040405-152.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=2640)

Phyllostachys aurea 'Flavescens-inversa'
Green culms/yellow groove
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/650/thumbs/Pflavinv2-1SGA050218-142.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=2312)

Phyllostachys aurea 'Koi
Culms turn from green to yellow after about 6 months, sulcus remains green.
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/659/thumbs/PaKoi6-6bSGA050221-311.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=2447)

Phyllotachys aurea 'Holochrysa'
Culms soon turn to yellow then golden orange
(No pics at gallery yet) ... though I would have thought this pic could be 'Holochrysa'
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/503/thumbs/PaureaBMPATX061105-4166.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=3773)
... but I believe it's because of a shallow bed (set on concrete) in full sun. Some escapee culms growing nearby are green green.

Mark Meckes
18th July 2007, 05:38 PM
Frank's Cane and Rush sells P. aurea poles as Turtle Bamboo ;)
http://www.franksupply.com/bamboo_poles.htm#turtlebamboo

I gulped like a tortoise at the price :eek:

I hope you have 'the real thing'.

ShmuBamboo
18th July 2007, 06:18 PM
That's funny. My brother has that type of turtling on his Phy. aurea boos that are really fat and tall. We posted about that before. Our hedge here that is a lot older has little of it. Right about the prices... egads.

I have seen some real impressive Tourtise Shell boos at the Hakone Gardens in the bay area where I lived before moving here. Impressive stuff. One book I have says that Tourtise Shell is really hard to grow in colder locations. Another says it will grow to 0 degree F. :confused:

If it is the real stuff, I should go back and buy up all their Moso...

Mark Meckes
18th July 2007, 07:30 PM
Moso can be easily distinguished by a velvety (to the touch) culm surface coating when they are young, which wears off as they age.
I don't know how easily the Tortise Shell form reverts to the species form or what percentage of culms exhibit this characteristic.
Like some other Phyllostachys species with a minimum temperature listing of 0F (-18C), I'll take a wild guess that cold/top leaf damage would be evident at 10F (?)

Yes I heard about the Tortise Shell Moso in the bamboo collection at Hakone Gardens and am surprised that they don't have a pic of at their site:
http://www.hakone.com/gardens/bamboo.html

Mark

ShmuBamboo
19th July 2007, 02:28 AM
The book, Bamboo for Gardens has some photos of Tortise Shell boos at the Hakone Gardens in it. That place was all of about 5 miles from the house that I owned in Campbell, CA. I went there a few times. Also to the Bamboo Giant over the hill in Aptos (which claims to be the largest bamboo garden in North America). According to my ABS source list, they sell it at a few places here on the west coast and one place has it in New Jersey. Oddly, NJ is a hotbed for bamboo. According to the owner of Bamboo Garden, they sell and ship a huge amount of bamboo to NJ. Its, the garden state.

ShmuBamboo
24th July 2007, 05:39 PM
As an update... I do not belive that the so called Tortoise Shell species I have is a Moso at all. No velvet fuzz on the culms. It does have some compressed internodes at the base of the newer shoots. Maybe stress from when it was smaller, I do not know. After looking at it closely, I think it may be a Phy. rubromarginata, another species on my want list, or maybe Phy. aureo. Spectabilis (which have culms that turn red in the sun). It seems that the gold and yellow types of stemmed boos turn red in a lot of full sun. This one has redish-brown color on internodes, and they are all in full sun here. I have to assume that the nursery lost the original names on some plants in their collection, and were trying to ID them from their growth habit (albeit at a young age and thus highly likely to be incorrect). It is not golden either (new shoot has wrong characteristics for golden which I have lots of here).

More "Mystery Bamboos" for my garden! I have the Phyllostachys keys now, but they are only good for mature growth forms. Most of these guys are a few years off from being mature enough to ID from the keys. But I will wait patiently as they grow... they have been potted up and fed well for rhyzome season this year.

Mark Meckes
29th July 2007, 01:11 PM
That's too bad it not being Tortoise Shell Moso :(
Here's a pic of the fuzzy velvety hairs on a small young Phyllostachys edulis:
http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/data/528/thumbs/PeduAuTX070725-9811.jpg (http://www.bamboocraft.net/bamboo/showphoto.php?photo=4445)

You can always start an ID guessing game at the Bamboo ID? (http://www.bamboocraft.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=147) Forum.

ShmuBamboo
4th August 2007, 02:01 AM
I picked up three more boo specimins today, one I have already and two new ones from a private collection in Aptos, CA. Too good to pass up. If I had more room in the truck I would certainly have bought more! Candy Cane or Candy Stripe (large 5 gal. specimin with 6 new shoots coming up), another well rhizomed vivax aureocaulis (I cannot get enough of that stuff!) and a California sub-type of black timber that has ripe banana peel colored culms with ripe banana peel spotches on the culms, even when they are small (I will update the species list with my notes on these later).

Also saw some awsome giant timber Moso and Henon groves there. Did the touchey feelie and got the feel of the fuzzy Moso culms. Saw some huge violasens, want it, he did not have any in a size I can bring back with me this trip (next trip already in the planning stages!). Saw some great Fargesias there, as he has most all the species in shaded areas below some huge redwood trees. The guy has some huge lawns of mini bamboos growing all over the place too. Oh, and he had some vivax clumps that had reverted to yellow groove from of aureocaulis. Very cool effect in a large stand. Saw a Square Stem stand, and some African types of boos.

He had some great boos that are not cold hardy too... o/w they would be mine. Or mine, my next trip down here.

ShmuBamboo
28th August 2007, 11:12 PM
More species added today from a trip to Portland and a trade with Issac from Merlin. 30 species now.

lundungurl
14th May 2008, 06:16 AM
Hi, I wanted to know if you have a pic of your candy cane bamboo... I bought some seeds (110 to be exact) and will be planting them soon. Just want to see how I can expect them to look like eventually. I live in Portland, Or. by the way.

ShmuBamboo
14th May 2008, 02:07 PM
Sorry, no photo yet. It is shooting now, so maybe after it shoots? It is kind of tall and spindly, from a division I brought back from California. I originally bought it to trade with someone, but that nursery has since gone under. I did not expect it to do as well as it did here this winter. Some leaves froze back, but not many and overall it did just fine down to 15 degrees F. That is the minimum listed in the ABS source list, but it will go lower than that. So more likely it will go to 12 or so degrees F. Compare it to Bam. multiplex which is listed as growing down to 18 degrees, but completely froze every leaf off this year with some top culm death. They were growing side by side. I saw that several nurseries in Portland had a lot of dead boos after this winter. I dunno why they did not put them in their greenhouses.

Anyway, Candy Cane, or Candy Stripe (botanical name: Himalayacalamus falconeri 'Damarapa') are unusual in that they have long and narrow multi-colored culms with red, yellow, and green. They are pachymorphs, one of the few non-leptomorph bamboos that I have. They seem to tolerate more sun than listed (zone 2, partial shade), and I have them in zone 3 (full morning to noon sun with afternoon shade). Supposedly they are very hard to germinate from seeds though. The Bamboo For Gardens book says that they need a period of 9 months of dormancy before they will germinate.

So, they should do OK in Protland, except if you get one of those really cold spells there in winter like when I was a kid, down to 8 degrees, these guys are not going to be very happy. They seem to take more sun and more cold than listed though, in my experience growing them.