Hardy Tropicals UK

Just noticed mine shooting this.

today noticed a nest of sexy culms!

cordyman wrote:


today noticed a nest of sexy culms!

Cordy you've saved me the trouble of taking a photo as mine look exactly the same.

looking good cordy

whats even more impressive its like that round every side of the plant

it is a great sight,even more so when they've grown and you get the green white checkerboard pattern it really stands out.

can't wait for the checkerboard action


its only been planted a year too. the new culms look a lot wider.

wonder if the 15 odd musa and ensete leaves i mulched with over winter were of any benefit?

every time I see these pics Jacko...I keep saying I need some of them !!!!

I noticed that a few had started to pop up on my robusta this weekend, they are only an inch or so high at the moment, a couple of weeks behind you chaps down south.

I have one question about my robusta though and that is it has a lot of leaves up top and most of them have been partially burnt and it looks a bit tatty to be honest (it has actually come off the worst of all of my bamboos over the last two winters). How many of these leaves can I remove to tidy it up and avoid the new culms aborting? I am thinking of cutting just those off that make it flop over a bit.

yeah cordy they will be bigger this year than last,and yes i use old banana leaves as mulch too adam i find those leaves that are half burnt eventually fall off and get replaced by new leaves as spring unfolds and by summer looks completely refreshed with new foliage.i did what you suggest for afew years pruning every half burnt leaf and ultimately it was a waste of time as the leaves got replaced anyway as the season progressed.by all means prune out some old weaker or thin culms and obvious dead bits.as for aborting its unlikely because the rhizomes are fully charged this time of year,they can abort if the plant is too dry,plenty of water this time of year.you can prune the ones that flop over no problem i do this all the time to keep the garden path clear if anything flops over it gets pruned.

Thanks for the reply Jacko

I will leave them alone and just go for the floppy ones.

I must admit that I am surprised by the tattiness of it in comparison to my other Fargesia rufa and scabrida.

most bamboos look tatty this time of year.this year its my yellow vivax that looks tatty but there are loads of leaf buds swelling up ready to replenish the foliage.heres a pic of my robusta in feb 2010 it looked a mess but by july it was lush and green again.

Funny, all my bamboos foliage looks ropey except on the yellow vivax which is perfect.

i'm going to do a foliage check tomorrow

My two Huangwenzhu are lovely and lush, but inbetween them a Vivax Aureo is tatty..
P.Nigra is tatty yet P.Spectablis is lush.
Fargesia Wolong & Scabrida look great but F.Jiuzhaigou looks awful....

It's a funny ol' game....