Hardiness: 15° F couldnt make it here in southern 6 :(

A bamboo dealer in NW USA advised me against Borinda boliana for San Antonio. He said most mountain bamboos can't take the 4-5 months of 90F-100F heat.
cold-hardy, yes. heat-hardy, no.

He said he shipped some mountain bamboos to a bamboo dealer in TX as an experiment, and they all died in the summer.

I lost a struggling but growing Chusquea foliosa as soon as it got hot in May.

As much as that beauty impressed me I don't think I'll move north for it.

I have found some pretty spectacular boo's that will do great here in the south, just kind of had my fingers crossed on that one.

Thanks

My consolation non-mountain "color" bamboo will be Bambusa chungii.

I just added Borinda Contracta to my want list, which also includes Borinda boliana and Chusquea foliosa.

UnAutre, my foliosa lived here for two years, in a pot, and did fine, but died from the lack of, or too much water, at least this is what I thought. Either way, I will try it again, since it is really a nice plant.

Two other thin-leaved bamboos are: Mexican Weeping bamboo and P. gramineus. both do very well here.

Kt

Did a search and found a picture of the chungii. Call me fickeled, but "New Love". Very impressive and now on my must have list.

Kt, since I am a hugh fan of all that is weeping the Mexican weeping bamboo is great. almost makes you think of a water fall. I bet it would look great next to a small pond.
I could not find a really good picture of the gramineus. That one does not get very tall does it?

Patris, I have a photo of my chungii culms and Mex Weep Boo in the gallery, although they are not the best, but you can see what they look like.

The gramineus is listed to grow up to 12 feet tall but mine only got to about 8 feet. Maybe more time and/or amount of sun/shade is needed to reach a taller height here.

Size of a plant can definitely be environmental, for example, my Golden Goddess is listed to grow to 10 feet max, but mine is well over that height, 18 feet or so tall.

Kt

My dead Ch. foliosa was and still is my most expensive plant. I don't mind gambling a bit on the low-temp end where I can always move the plant inside, wrap it, etc for a handful of evenings/year.

I don't mind keeping a plant out of full sun. But on the high-temp end, trying to keep a plant cool for 2 - 4 months just doesn't appeal.

I'm new to gardening, so I see plenty of beautiful stuff I can try that can support high temps.

Keeping the plant in a pot and off of the ground helps keep the plant cooler. If yours was in the ground, that may have been some of the problem. Mine was in shade most of the time and never looked ill until it suddenly died. It received a nice south breeze all Summer long. Heat didn't seem to bother it here, but too much water, or lack of, is a problem for almost any plant.

I was planning on dividing it, just before it expired, so that I could put some in the ground and see how it would do, but I will have to purchase another one and start over.

Kt