This is such an interesting time of year for me, a relatively new bamboo hobbyist, as most of my bamboos are shooting vigorously and/or filling out last year's new shoots - and it is so much fun to check on them every day!

My favorite right now is Drepanostachyum khasianum. It's in a 20 or 25 gallon pot just outside the window at my kitchen sink, and the bird feeder hangs there too, and the birds and I both seem to enjoy this handsome bamboo equally, even though for different reasons. It was a new division last fall, and it has really filled out since then, with lots of new branches on the older canes and lots of new shoots at various stages.

Another vigourous shooter is Drepanostachyum sengteeanum. It, too, was a new division last fall, and it didn't look very good all winter, but now it seems quite happy! It has much finer texture than the related Khasianum, with much smaller lighter green leaves and a much tighter clumping habit, and it is soooo graceful.

Sometimes I think my favorite is Himalaycalamus hookerianus 'Little Blue'. The new shoots are 3-4' taller and thicker than those from last year and it makes such a handsome, dark leaved clump! And I don't forget to check on H. hookerianus 'Teague's Blue' every day either, which is putting out only one new shoot, but it is twice as thick as any other canes....

H. falconeri 'Damarapa' is just starting to shoot now ....

My only runner among all these clumpers is a small Sinobambusa tootsik 'Albostriata' - spectacularly colorful, and shooting canes about 3 times taller than last year. (This one I am keeping in a pot because runners scare me........)

Then there are a couple I worry about over..... Fargesia robusta, just sitting there doing nothing. It's planted in the considerable shade of a redwood tree, and I wonder if it's in too much shade...... Also Fargesia dracocephala 'White Dragon', doing nothing, and I don't know why...

None of my 3 big Borinda fungosas is shooting either, but they were shooting into late October last year, so I guess they put out their new canes later in the year - like my Himalaycalamus asper. I tell my impatient self that it's just as well they aren't all shooting at once - because they'll give me something to get excited about later - when the others have finished their show......

Jan