I'd think about putting it in the ground and letting it get established for a year before dividing it. It may just have been divided before you bought it and you could shock it more than necessary. You could also call the nursery and see if they can give you advice.

As regards your quest for cheaper bamboo, what do you consider cheap? There is a pretty wide range in prices for similar bamboo from the online nurseries, but none of them are super cheap for the less common species.

Most 5 gallon plants at my local nurseries cost $30 to $40 now (with Home Depot from $20, if you're in to just the more common plants). I just paid $100 for a 5 gallon Himalaycalamus 'Damarapa'. So I guess I wonder why bamboos are so much more expensive than regular trees and shrubs? Especially when I see a 1 gallon bamboo at $50.00, with only 1 or 2 or 3 canes. I'd like to acquire some more bamboos, but I'm having a hard time adjusting to this price differential.

Clay of the Land over in Berkeley has good prices on 1 gallon plants. I was able to buy a one gallon Damarapas, H. Asper, and H. Falconeri for $15 each. There's also a guy in Santa Cruz who post on Craigslist with bamboo for sale. He has Teague's Blue for sale but I don't know the price. I've not bought plants from him though.

Echolane,
Bamboo remains a little expensive because it rarely flowers and sets seed, and division is the easiest way to get new plants (for most cold hardy). There are a few in the US that are starting tissue cultured ones, but it has only been in the past few years, and mostly more common varieties. (please, anybody with more info chime in as I'm interested in this too)

It's worth more in my opinion as a landscaping plant given its growth rate. Also, if you wanted to you could sell divisions yourself within a few years and get your money back. Most of us are in the same boat as you with a few on our "want" lists.

the guy in the santa cruz hills that sells bamboo is bohemian bamboo- i think under the same website name. I bought some H.hookerianus Teague Blue from him and it's beautiful.

I tried to access his web site (www.bohemianbamboo.com) and got the message: "Forbidden - You don't have permission to access this web site on this server." Any one else have this problem?

kudzu - I don't think his site is up yet.

The contact information for bohemian bamboo is:

Bohemian Bamboo
La Selva Beach, CA
831-662-1322 Fax:831-851-5595
William Schneider
bohemianbamboo@mac.com

Echolane, what about the Exchanges section of this forum? Trading is usually cheaper than buying.

I think that the prices the bamboo nurseries charge for their plants are reasonable, but Home Depot doesn't sell bamboo around here.

problem is for those of us wanting to get some of those boos is that the HD's and nurseries up north don't have them.

I want common ones, and 5 gal for 30-40 is ok, but when you double the price for shipping....

oh well, its too late for me to plant anything safely at this point anyway. Maybe next spring...

~Chills