I rescued five 3" diameter canes from a property in Mississippi. The canes had been blown down during one of the storms from Rita last year. The leaves were green and healthy and the root balls were mostly covered with soil.

Not having a truck, I had to cut the tops off of 4 of them leaving the root ball, which I wrapped with soil and burlap, and 5' of cane with no leaves. The fifth one, which I call #5, already had part of the top sawed off but still had 3 branches with a few leaves. I was able to hang it on the side of my car with about 12Â hanging past the front and rear bumpers. I got a lot of strange looks!

When I got to my house in Mesquite Texas, I immediately planted #5 and put the others in very large pots which I later planted in December. I had to tie 4 ropes, which are still there, around #5 to keep it from blowing over until the roots grow enough to stabilize it. To prevent the lawn mowing guys from mowing shoots, I covered the entire side yard with 10" of mulch.

The first week that #5 was in the ground, a small strip from the bottom to about 8' high turned yellow on the South facing side. It is still yellow but not the beige color if the strip were completely dead. Most of the cane is dark green. There are actually green areas where the rope and knots in the rope provided shade. After that, the plant seemed to handle the full sun ok.

This spring, #5 doubled the number of leaves but that is the only activity of any of the plants other than one of the short canes having the top section die and turn beige. The rest of the plant and all of the others are green.

I believe that I have two varieties with three of the sort canes having sort of a waxy coating and #5 and the other short cane having a darker green color and no waxy coating.

I know that they are all still alive but I expected that there would already be multiple shoots coming out of the ground by now. I used good soil when I planted them and take care not to over-water them.

I recently moved the mulch away from the canes to let the ground dry out because there seemed to be so much moisture in the ground and I was concerned that that might cause problems.

I havenÂt installed a barrier yet but will do so this fall. I have dense Golden Bamboo growing in my back yard and know how ruthless the rhizomes can be.

ShouldnÂt there already be shoots after being in the ground for 8 months?

I understand that none of the canes will ever grow taller but will they grow leaves?

Any advice would be welcomed.

David