joe-
I'm in Zone 8 and A. Karr is not quite hardy enough to handle the worst couple days of winter. I'm afraid that yours will keep getting whacked and set back each winter. I've got mine in a pot which comes inside for a couple of months.

Mine never freezes here in 8b in Texas. It has gotten some leaf burn, but nothing serious. Water well during cold weather.

In it's second season in the ground, it really took off, but nothing like it's third season. It is a very prolific shooter, putting up shoots throughout most of the Summer.

Good Luck

Kt

Me too, I am on year one with mine, it is shooting now.. I put it next to some Oldhammi, will see what it does this winter, all my Oldhammi died off during winter but came back slightly larger this year but only a couple of shoots.

Joe

I would have thought that B. m. 'Alphonse Karr' culms would have survived most zone 8 winters without being killed. How cold did it get by you last year. I am about an hour drive directly north of Kentuck and also have had no winter damage. It occassionally gets down to 18 F in the early morning hours but then it is almost always above freezing during the day. Only time will tell if the particular plant you have will do well in your paticular location.

I have two BmAKs, one in the shade and one in the sun. Neither is a particlarly fast growing Bambusa in terms of height but do put up a lot of new shoots. They are just shooting now so I will have to see how much height they add this year. I am expecting a foot or two at most.

Good luck and let us know how it does next winter. I am in the same situation with a B. oldhamii. I had it in a pot for two years and planted it last year. It was completly killed above ground in the winter, but was also the first of my bamboo to "shoot" this spring (including the runners). I say "shoot" because they were similar to survival shoots on a runner and may have actually been new branches from buried nodes. It is now putting up its first real shoot this year. I think I am about at the limit where B. oldhamii will grow with only minimal leaf damage in most winters.

Mike near Brenham TX

Mike keep me posted on your Oldhammi this winter, this will be my second year for it. I got about 5 new shoots, 1 is half inch in diameter which isnt bad, but I would hate to lose it all again come January. The pic on the site is a week or so old and this one shoot is now about 7ft tall.. Will see about the Karr and if it makes it

Here is a link that might be useful: boo

My Oldhamii froze above ground, it's first Winters in the ground, but came back larger each successive season. If I had mulch on top of the lower branches and some of the leaves, they sometimes survived, but anything else was completely lost.

The last two Winters in particular have been very mild, and the Oldhamii came through without much damage.

Mike, since y'all were here, the leaves have really come back and are now a very dark green. There are several new shoots, but none larger than last years.

One thing that I have noticed, and have posted about here before, is that if the shoots come up early in the season, they are narrower, and if they come up later in the growing season, they are thicker. This is also true with my other Bambusas.

In the past, my Oldhamii always put up shoots around the last week in July and early August. The last three years, we always get a 'cooling' rain around June and the first week of July and the shoots come up immediately afterward and are smaller. All that I can figure out, is that if they are underground for a longer time, they have more time to grow some size before breaking ground and becoming a shoot.

Anyone else experience or notice this?

Joefalco and Kevip711, always water well during the Winter months. I did not always do this with my Bambusas during their first few Winters, and they froze back, to different degrees, depending on the variety.

Since I have been watering heavily during the Winter, especially since it has been dry here during the colder months, it has made a huge difference in Winter survival. On colder nights, when the chance of severe cold(24F or less, yes, I know, you northerners don't think this is very cold, but here...) is a threat, I will leave a water sprinkler on ALL night on my Oldhamii in order to save as much as possible, even if it is just the bottom few feet.

You may want to try something similar on those really cold nights.

Kt

Will do, looks terrible come spring, takes till summer before it looks like anything. If I can save the larger culms and leaves during winter that would be great.

Thanks for all the replies. My AK did not freeze to the ground rather it suffered transplant shock and I thought it was completely dead. Now I have about 5 shoots. They are tiny little shoots less than the thickness of a pencil.

I am happy to see it is alive though. I was wondering how many years before this bamboo makes something of itself.

My Al Karr did quite well it's second season in the ground, but it's third season was really a surprise. It looked really well. It's fourth season produced the largest culms, and has never sent up any larger culms since.

Maximum diameter is about 1 1/4 inches at the base.

Kt

"if the shoots come up early in the season, they are narrower, and if they come up later in the growing season, they are thicker. This is also true with my other Bambusas."

I confirm same here with my B. tuldoides, which remains a tight clumper.

The first 5 or 6 shoots that came up this season were about the same size as last season, but just now I have 3 or 4 MUCH fatter shoots breaking through. I'll have to prune the ovehanging Mesquite tree to make room for these fat shoots that will get much taller than the others so far.

I love how this tuldoies has sized up much quicker, already last year, its first year, than any of my Phyllostachys have in two seasons. I'm giving it water every two days and some fert so it won't have any excuses for not doing its best.

Unautre, my B. tuldoides is an open clumper, which makes me wonder what it's true ID is. About half of the growers of tuldoides that I have spoken with say theirs is "open" and the other half says "tight" clumper.

Since you are not far from here, I doubt if it is environmental. Largest culms are just over two inches in diameter and height is about 40 feet. Just as you said, mine is putting up larger culms lately as opposed to it's early season culms.

Kt