4/23/10

Indocalamus tessellatus - a dwarf running bamboo


Indocalamus tessellatus is a dwarf running bamboo that we first discovered in Seattle, WA.  Like all running bamboos, Indocalamus loves cold weather.  Is it freezing outside?  No problem.  Snow on the ground?  Bamboo happy.  Here in Florida where it doesn't snow and winter temperatures only occasionally drop into the high teens/low 20s, running bamboos do well but they don't grow as tall or as large a diameter as they will in a colder climate. 

At Beautiful Bamboo, we've planted Indocalamus tessellatus around two mulberry trees in our demonstration gardens. 


The bamboo creates a beautiful ground cover around the tree.  We keep it from spreading by simply mowing around the circle of bamboo.  Every spring new shoots appear.  In Florida that means new shoots emerge in late February and continue through early April.  By now, at the end of April, all of this year's shoots will have already popped out of the ground.  From now on they put their energy into growing taller and leafing out.

 
A new shoot begins to leaf out


And continues to grow bigger...

And bigger


New shoots tend to emerge along the outer edge of the existing bamboos.


Forming an attractive green ground cover around the mulberry tree.



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