try:
jmbamboo.com
bambooplantation.com

Try and buy 5 to 10 divisions from your neighbor. It's easier to start a fence hedge from taller established Oldhamii than waiting 3 years for it to grow from shipped rootballs. Check out www.bamboogiant.com for info on how to transplant a hedge. They sell Oldhamii, but they are located in Northern California, not sure where you are. I'm currently transplanting Oldhamii bamboo so be warned when trying to divide a clumper like this because of it's dense root stucture. It's like trying to divide a tree stump underground, I ended up using a sawzall, axe, prybars, and a chainsaw. Lot of hard work, but I was able to get thousands of dollars worth of bamboo this way.

Check out http://www.bamboodirect.com . They have Oldhamii starting at $43 shipped.

Also, even if you cannot take a division of Oldhamii it propagates very easily using culm and branch cuttings. You could probably get at least 12 to 15 new plants from a 40 foot culm. If you know someone in the area this may be the best bet.

Appreciate the info.

To bad for me no one here has this type. I am in south Texas so I need one that will withstand our dry hot summer.

Webgator, you said you can make more with branch cuttings? That would sure be easier than that heavy equipment strangeglove had to use.

After writing my first post I found a place called Bamboo Texas.

http://bambootexas.com

They have lots of different bamboos. Has anyone ever ordered from them or heard of this company?
The prices seem very good. For a 1 gal. pot of Oldhamii (looks to be about 10 inches tall) the price is $25.

They had several others that I think would do good down here. Painted bamboo (vulgaris), Mexican weeping, multiplex, beecheyana and dendrocalamus asper.

Of course I know nothing of any of these so could use more experienced input from those who know.
I'm not sure but I seem to have gotten some kind of bamboo bug all of a sudden! I now think I need more than one kind in my yard. I have 1 1/2 acres so I do have the room. Main thing is I do not want to get the kind of bamboo that takes over my yard and the neighbors.

Patris-
Runners are not going to take over your yard if you rhizome prune once or twice a year with a shovel. I guarantee you that the out-of-control grove you saw started from a couple of plants put in the ground a number of years ago and left to do whatever they wanted with no maintenance.

Kudsu, good to know! As I said I am so new to this, guess the sight of about a half acre covered with bamboo kind of scared me.

I could just see myself waking up one morning and the whole house has been eaten by boo. LOL Sorry for jumping the panic wagon. I do love the look of the running bamboo. Maybe I'll give it a try!

Patris-
It is important to rhizome prune on schedule, but it's a trivial amount of work and you can enjoy all kinds of bamboo. I'm growing over 25 runners and none of them have gotten out of hand. I much prefer rhizome pruning to digging ditches for barriers. Plant what you want, take care of it, and have fun!

Yes, you can propagate quite a few clumping bamboos this way. Here are a few pics from some of my recent ones:

B. Vulgaris branch cutting

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B. Vulgaris Culm Cutting

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B. Oldhamii Culm Cuttings...almost all rooted.

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Webgator, what's your secret? What time of the year do you plant these and do you feed them anything? How long does it take before you have roots?

Kt

The Vulgaris I have done both Spring and Fall. The Oldhamii above was done last October. I have a third variety that I am trying now that I took cuttings of about a month ago. I will be doing the same for my Vitatta also this year.

The "secret" I was told for culm cuttings was to keep the culm full of water. Of the 30 or so pictured above almost 20 rooted. The rest are still in the ground.

Also, I have found for culm cuttings it is almost essential to keep some of the branching and leaves attached at the node.

Another note...all my cuttings are done in the shade of an old oak. They are also watered at least once per week. No nutrients or rooting hormones were used. I have noted rooting in as little as 2 weeks and as long as 6 months.

Webgator, that looks easy enough. Great pictures and your soil appears to be very rich.

If you don't mind, do you have a picture of one before you cut it? I would like to get an idea of where to get started.

Thanks for your help
Patris

Well essentially it was a whole culm divided up!

I usually start at the bottom node. Cut about 1 inch below the node then make your next cut about 1 inch below the next node. Put the boo cutting either directly in the ground or in a pot deep enough to bury the bottom node. Fill with water and keep full.

If the node has alot of branching then trim the branches down to one or two with a few leaves. Then re-trim the branches you removed using the same method and bury those also.

The culm cuttings I have been putting in individual pots now. The branch cuttings I usually community pot them. The onces in the ground above were kinda an experiment and I actually lost a little root mass when digging them as some of the roots were over 3 feet long!

Maybe I will make a pictured How-To and post it...

Webgator,

What soil mix do you use? I've tried numerous times with cuttings similar to yours and I'm lucky if I get a 10% success rate. You definiely have the magic touch.

Doug

Doug,

I have used 50/50 peat/perlite mix, premium potting mix that I get in bulk, and have put them directly in the ground with no additives.

I truly believe moisture and having one or two branches attached are the key to success. They are also in complete shade except for the late afternoon sun.

Here is another pic of one from the group above...the first shoot it sent up now towers at 6 feet!

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I think you're trick of water in the internode is pretty cool.

have you tried it with/w-o water? is water really a difference maker?

Searching for seed germination/developlment and various vegetative propagation etc tricks, it seems that gibberellic acid, indole acid, butyric acid, and Vitamin B1 are seen to be effective in speeding germination, rooting, early growth. I have these three:

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I'm using them my attempt to propagete Bambusa tuldoides with the "buried culm" technique.

Thanks for the close-up pics gator. I am going to give that a try. Most times I am great with seeds and not so good with cuttings, but there's always a first time.

Of the 6 varities I was looking in to, I have decided to get all 6!!! I don't like having to choose. Now which one do I plant where????? LOL

I've had great success with culm cuttings of oldhamii and limited success with D minor amoenus. I do single node cuttings and trim most ot the limbs leaving a few and removing all the leaves. I did mine in the spring. I will try some in the fall. I'm saving you a Dendro Scott !!
Rich

unautre,

My first time trying propagating I had 1 of 12 cuttings take. After doing more research and talking with others the water trick with culm cuttings has definitely increased the success ratio.

Again, in the pic above I got probably a 60-75% rooting using no special hormones or soil amendments.

Also, I am limited in the varieties I have done, but hope to expand this success as my collection grows.

I'm interested in propagating B. tuldoides. I have a culm from last year that is fully branched/leaved now. I'll stick the one-node culm cutting in your style in 1-gal pots, and keep the culm topped up with the stimulator solution. The liquid in the culm probably keeps the moisture loss through the leaves from dessicating the culm.
I can't tell from the picture, but do your roots sprout from the bud at the node or from the lower edge of the cutting?

The roots sprout from the node.

I was wondering if you have noticed a difference in the length of time roots form when planted in pots instead of the ground.

Orchidnuts, is the Scott another name for the D Minor Amoenus? A little ignorance popping here, but I looked for the Scott and could find no info at all. Found the Amoenus and WOW, love the light color!

It would be a treasured addition to my garden. Thanks

Orchinut and Webgator-
What age culms do you use for your cuttings? I've had very limited success with culm cuttings with my Malingensis. I used two year old culms and kept them filled with water as Webgator indicated. Oh well, it's fun to keep trying.
Doug

I had a thread here a few months ago about my project of burying a culm of B. tuldoides (thought it was textilis at the time) with each node buried in its pot rather than the entire culm underground, but the thread is not in the archives. search for "textilis" doesn't find it.

The culm has remained alive and green with only a small bit of it still attached to the culm as it emerges from the ground. Most of the buried nodes continued sprouting branches and leaves, poking out the top of the mix, through the bottom drainage holes, or out the side port.

I checked 4 of the 9 pots yesterday. No roots from any of the nodes, after 2 or 3 months, in spite of plenty of growth of branches from those nodes. Haven't figured out how to get the nodes to put out roots as well a branches, or instead of branches.

Patris,

The "Scott" orchidnuts was referring to is me. Also, I have noticed no difference in the timeframe for rooting.

Dktrimb,

I was told to use any older than the current years growth. I have never tried Malingensis. Not certain if it matters, but I also was told the portions closer to ground have a greater success rate than the top.

Unautre,

That is the same thing most of mine do, however, I have never tried the air layering method you are doing. The branching stays green and then new branching or shoots form. After that rooting tneds to take place. I would thing that after several months and your culms are still green and healthy looking you are on the way to having some new boos soon.

So sorry for the mistake

I use culms that are a few years old. They are smaller. I wouldn't want to cut down 3 inch oldhamii culms. The limbs on larger culms will root like the culms. I have heard that most clumpers will propogate that way but some won't. Pervariablis and eutuldoides are better propogated by division. Rich

This is good info.wanted to updated it

Patris, If you lived closer, I be glad to share a stalk with ya, so you can have some fun watching this Bamboo grow like I did - you can view mine from the first stick in the ground till now....

Here is a link that might be useful: KK's Bamboo

If the last link didn't work - try this one. sorry

Here is a link that might be useful: KK's Bamboo

OK Lets try this one more time - try this link....

Here is a link that might be useful: kchedville Bamboo

kchedville, Your bamboo is bambusa vulgaris, and it's look'n good....

Patris, I have bought a couple of plants from John at BambooTexas- Oldhamii in fact, and both have done remarkably well. The Oldhamii was in a 1gal pot and put in the ground in a semi-shaded spot here in central TX (alkaline soil). That summer we had a lot of rain and it put up about 6 10ft. culms. The winter killed most of it and it's back again this year but hot dry June weather hurt and it's only got one 10ft. culm so far with a smaller dense undergrowth of small shoots. I'm going to try to propagate some to try in other areas of the yard. Anyway BambooTexas is a great source!