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Thick Canes, Small Clump

Two months ago I got an issue of Florida Gardening that had a rather nice cover shot that was repeated in the story (see below). While I like the overall picture, the part that really peaks my interest is the left side where it looks like there is a small clump of 3 to maybe 5 or 6 thick-caned bamboo. Unfortunately, none of the other pictures in the article show this clump from a different angle. How hard would it be to keep a clump of such thick bamboo manageable? I've heard about "Just kick the culm if you don't want it to grow", but I'm curious as to how often I would have to kick new culms or if by doing this I would be speeding the bamboo on a course for early death?


Thanks


Comments (5)

  • 11 years ago

    That doesn't look like bamboo to me. It looks like the trunk of some palm tree. The advice of kicking over culms is not quite right. You can prevent a culm from coming up if you destroy the shoot as it's emerging from the ground and before it has hardened off. However, that approach does not affect the underground spread of rhizomes if it is a running bamboo.

    When you have a specific kind of bamboo in mind, post again. Both running and clumping bamboo are manageable.


  • 11 years ago

    I thought maybe it was a bottle palm like the one further down the path, but that one looks like it has much shorter sections. If I were to attempt this, it would be with something like a yellow-caned Timber. A grower 'near' me has one called Hawaiian Gold Timber that would be quite remarkable. I think if I were to try to do less than half a dozen canes, the canes would just have to stand out and make a statement.

    There's no way I would put a Running-type in my yard. I know you can try to contain them with a somewhat deep concrete barrier, but I wouldn't want to add something that permanent to my garden and I definitely don't want to have to worry about it escaping. A clumping bamboo would be my only option. My yard is too small to allow for true clump of thick-caned Timbers, but my wife loves bamboo and while I have a small clump of Golden Goddess, if I could give her some thicker caned ones like this, without it becoming an issue, that would be awesome.


    But as you say, it could be a palm. Being that this garden is in South Florida and I am in Central, they have access to a wider range of palm options than I do.

  • 11 years ago

    You can always plant a clumper and just prune out culms you don't want...like with any bamboo. I'm not sure what a "Hawaiian Gold Timber" is: unfortunately, sellers often make up fanciful names. Doing a Google search, it looks like some sellers refer to Bambusa vulgaris vittata by this name, but the problem is that made-up names can often refer to more than one species. It is always better to know the exact species when buying something like this, especially if you want to ensure that it's a clumper.

    P.S.: I'm not trying to convince you to plant a runner, but you don't need concrete containment. I have about 70 varieties of running bamboo planted in my yard: some are contained by a heavy duty plastic material called bamboo barrier, and others are completely uncontained and I just prune the rhizomes once a year. There are many ways to control running bamboo and the most commonly used ones don't involve concrete in any way.

  • 11 years ago

    I checked their site and it does say that Bambusa vulgaris vittata is the Latin name. I also just noted that this particular one is cold sensitive, so I wouldn't try that one in my area but another variegated or yellow caned variety.


  • 11 years ago
    For that bamboo species, "cold sensitive" means that temps at about freezing or below would cause serious damage or death. Its origins are SE Asia, where it is typically warmer than where you live.
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