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BEAUTIFUL BAMBOO

18404 S.R. 19 Groveland, FL 34736

Beautifulbamboofarm@gmail.com

(352)429-2425

www.beautifulbamboo.com

Clumping Bamboo

Clumpers grow gradually outward from the center with new canes growing taller and getting larger in diameter every year. The most important characteristic of clump bamboos is that, unlike running bamboos, they do not spread by sending underground shoots far away from the main plant. A clumping variety of bamboo is a safe and attractive plant to add to any landscape. It is NOT invasive. For a privacy hedge, plant clumping bamboos anywhere from 4- to 10-feet apart.

Golden Goddess

Bambusa multiplex golden goddess

12'-15' tall
1/4" cane diameter
Hardy to 18°F
Use as a privacy hedge.
Space 4'-6' apart.
Sizes available 1g, 3g, 7g, 15g, and 25g

Golden Goddess hedge

Golden Goddess hedge

Golden Goddess hedges can be shaped easily using hedge trimmers.

Ladyfinger

Bambusa sp. Richard Waldron

12’-15’ tall

½ “ cane diameter

Hardy to 20°F

Use as narrow privacy hedge.

Space 4'-6’ apart

Sizes available: 1g, 3g, 7g

Dwarf Buddha Belly

Bambusa vulgaris wamin

12’-15’ tall

3“ cane diameter

Hardy to 28° F 

Use as ornamental. 

Space 4'-6’ apart

Sizes available: 3g, 7g, 15g, 30g

Dwarf Buddha Belly has unique bulbous canes.

Golden Hedge

Bambusa multiplex alphonse karr

15’-20’ tall

1 ½ “ cane diamteter

Hardy to 18°F

Use as privacy hedge.

Space 4'-8’ apart

Sizes available: 1g, 3g, 7g, 15g, 30g

Newly planed hedge from 15g.

Mature Golden Hedge.

Golden Hedge is one of our yellow caned varieties that has a vertical green stripe.

Green Hedge

Bambusa multiplex silverstripe

20’-25’ tall

1 ½ “ cane diameter

Hardy to 18° F 

Use as privacy hedge.

Space 6'-10’ apart

Sizes available: 1g, 3g, 7g, 15g, 30g

Green Hedge line

Graceful

Bambusa textilis gracilis

25’ tall

1 ¼ “ cane diameter

Hardy to 15° F 

Use as privacy hedge or ornamental.

Space 4'-8’ apart

Sizes available: 3g, 7g, 15g, 30g

Graceful hedge along a pool

Pruning lower leaves allows canes to show easily

Graceful works great near pools, fences, and narrow planting spaces due to it’s tight, upright posture.

Graceful

Graceful

Asian Lemon
Bambusa eutuldoides viridi vittata

25’ tall
1“ cane diameter
Hardy to 21°F 
Use as privacy hedge or ornamental.
Space 4'-8’ apart
Sizes available: 3g, 7g, 15g, 30g

Asian Lemon is one of our thickest varieties and has bright yellow canes with long, tropical leaves.

Asian Lemon close up

Baby Blue
Bambusa chungii barbellata

25’ tall
1 ½ “ cane diameter
Hardy to 21°F 
Use as ornamental or privacy.
Space 6'-10’ apart
Sizes available: 7g, 15g, 30g

Baby Blue canes

Baby blue is a baby brother to the tropical blue timber. It has more of an open growth pattern and bowl shape at the base. 

Tropical Black Timber
Bambusa lako

25-35’ tall
2-3“ cane diameter
Hardy to 28° F
Use as ornamental.
Space 6'-8’ apart
Sizes available: 3g, 7g, 15g

Tropical black canes

The tropical black canes come up green, then darken as the black pigment comes in.

Ying Yang
Bambusa emeiensis viridiflavus

35’ tall
2 ½ “ cane diameter
Hardy to 24°F 
Use as ornamental.
Space 6'-8’ apart
Sizes available: 3g, 7g, 15g

Yin Yang canes crisscross at the base.

Angel Mist
Dendocalamus minor amoenus

35’ tall
3“ cane diameter
Hardy to 24° F
Use as ornamental
Space 6'-10’ apart
Sizes available: 3g, 7g, 15g

Angel Mist canes with a new shoot

Angel Mist has the largest leaves of all our plants, creating a wide tropical leaf spread to compliment its “misty” canes. 










Tropical Blue Timber
Bambusa chungii

35-40’ tall
2 ½ “ cane diameter
Hardy to 21° F
Use as ornamental
Space 6'-10’ apart
Sizes available: 3g, 7g, 15g, 30g

Tropical Blue canes

Known for it’s attractive blue canes, the tropical blue almost looks like it’s glowing.

Line of Tropical Blue

Seabreeze
Bambusa malingensis

35'-45’ tall
2 ½ “ cane
Hardy to 18°F
Use as privacy wall
Space 6'-10’ apart
Sizes available: 3g, 7g, 15g, 30g

Seabreeze hedge

Seabreeze is one of our fastest growers and can create an impenetrable wall of privacy. 

Wall of Seabreeze along our nursery highway.

Hawaiian Gold
Bambusa vulgaris vittata

35'-45’ tall
3"-4“ cane
Hardy to 28°F 
Use as ornamental
Space 6'-10’ apart
Sizes available: 3g, 7g

Hawaiian Gold canes

The Hawaiian Gold has large yellow canes and an open growth pattern.

Line of Hawaiian Gold

Emerald Timber
Bambusa mutabilis

45’ tall
2 ½ “ cane
Hardy to 18°F 
Use as privacy or ornamental
Space 6'-10’ apart
Sizes available: 3g, 7g, 15g, 30g

Giant Timber
Bambusa oldhamii

50’ tall
4"-5“ cane
Hardy to 20°F 
Use as ornamental
Space 6'-10’ apart
Sizes available: 3g, 7g, 15g, 30g

Giant Timber canes

Giant Timber is the largest of our plants, best known for its large canes and tall, stately figure.

Two mature clumps of Giant Timber

 

Greening up the outside dining area at Mellow Mushroom in Jacksonville

Black Running Bamboo in a planter at Mellow Mushroom in Jacksonville, FL

Yesterday when Tim was delivering bamboo to customers in northeast Florida, he stopped for dinner at Mellow Mushroom along Rt. A1A.  Last year, the Jacksonville location of Mellow Mushroom purchased two kinds of running bamboos from Beautiful Bamboo.  Mellow Mushroom is one of our favorite restaurants and ever since the Jacksonville location purchased plants from us, we've been curious about how they looked.  Yesterday Tim had an opportunity to find out.

The object was to break up the starkness of the tall wall with some greenery.  In just one growing season, Semiarundinaria fastuosa viridis (Green Hedge Running Bamboo) and Phyllostachys nigra (Black Running Bamboo) did the trick!

Running bamboos are not right for everyone because they are invasive.  They must be controlled so they don't spread into places where they are not supposed to be.  However, when used as a container plant, running bamboos have many advantages.  The container prevents them from being invasive and the plants' upright growth pattern works perfectly for narrow spaces.  Since running bamboos are also very cold hardy, they are an excellent choice as container plants throughout the United States.  They actually grow taller and have larger diameter canes in colder parts of the country than they do in warmer climates.
  

Another photo of the wooden planters used to contain the running bamboo

Should bamboo watering schedule change with the seasons?

A customer from Winter Park, FL wrote to ask about winter watering needs for bamboo:

Now that winter is still with us, yet changing into something like Spring over the next few days, should we adjust our winter watering schedule? We have restrictions at this time of year: once a week is the city limit. Yet I could go out and give each bamboo clump, say, a gallon or two a day if you advised. Most of the bambusa chungii still have green leaves, but on a number of these leaves the tips are brown. I'm thinking that is a seasonal thing, but maybe you will say more water is needed. I'm also planning to put Black Kow around each clump later this week.

My response:
Soil conditions, fertilizer and water are the 3 key ingredients needed to make large, healthy bamboo plants.  

Clumping bamboos send up new shoots during the warm months and those shoots will be a larger diameter and taller if they are growing in rich, well-irrigated soil.  Adding compost, manure, grass clippings or any other organic matter as a top dressing around existing plants is always beneficial in any season.  As it rains or when the bamboos are watered, the nutrients from the top dressing leaches into the subsoil to be absorbed by the roots.  

If water restrictions limits watering to once a week any additional hand watering will help.  The more you water, the sooner new shoots will emerge.  But don't worry if you can't do that.  Bamboos can handle minimal watering, they just grow faster and get bigger sooner if they are more frequently irrigated.  

The browning on the tips of the Bambusa chungii (Blue Timber) is, as you suspected, just a natural part of the winter season.  Bamboo leaves die and fall to the ground all year long but it seems to happen more so in the winter.  The brown tips are not a sign that your plants are lacking in water or are nutrient deficient.  It just signals a transition time from one season to the next.  


Keep your eyes open for new shoots on the Bambusa chungii.  Just within the last few days I've noticed new shoots emerge on the Blue Timber bamboos that we planted last year.

Is it normal for bamboo leaves to turn brown?

A customer who bought bamboo from us before the recent cold snap wrote to ask: 

Is it normal for the bamboo to brown in the winter?  All but the Golden Hedge now have brown leaves, following some rather bitterly cold nights we had last week and the week before.  The stalks still look basically the same.

 

Just wanted to see if something’s gone wrong.  I did avoid watering before the coldest nights for fear of freezing the roots, but otherwise they should have received plentiful water.

 

I replied:

You haven't done anything wrong.  The unusually cold weather has "burned" the leaves on many of the bamboos.  Those leaves will be falling off in the coming weeks and new leaves will form to take their place.  For information on which bamboos are most vulnerable to winter temperatures, please click on this post. 

Will the cold snap kill my bamboos?

Dwarf Buddha Belly leaves are beginning to die after being nipped by last week's freezing temperatures

Many people are worried about their bamboos.  People have been calling to ask what they should do to protect their bamboos during tonight's expected freeze.  Fortunately, most of the bamboos are going to be fine even if they are not protected at all.  All the running bamboos and most of the clumping bamboos can handle chilly weather - even when it dips into the mid to high 20s.  Certain ones are vulnerable but even those will rebound when the weather warms back up.  It is important to remember that even if the cold weather kills the above ground portions of the plant, it won't kill the roots.  The roots will remain viable and will send up new shoots again in the summer.

Here's a list of which plants are vulnerable:  all the Textilis bamboos like Emerald and Graceful are extremely hardy and won't be damaged unless temperatures dip into the mid to low teens.  That's also true for all the Multiplex bamboos like Golden Hedge, Green Hedge and Golden Goddess and also for Buddha Belly (Bambusa ventricosa).  Almost as hardy are Blue Timber, Baby Blue, Seabreeze and Yin Yang - those bamboos might suffer some leaf damage when temperatures dip into the low 20s. 

The ones to be concerned about in the current freeze are Dwarf Buddha, Hawaiian Gold, Angel Mist and Black bamboo.  To a slightly lesser degree, Ladyfinger, Asian Lemon, Giant Timber and Sunburst are also vulnerable.

Emerald - A bamboo gem

EMERALD TIMBER BAMBOO    

Bambusa textilis mutabilis/Kanapaha
Can grow 30-40 feet with 2" diameter canes. Very Hardy

Emerald - also called Royal Bamboo or Wong Chuk - is a stately and elegant cold-hardy bamboo

I often refer to Emerald as the "big brother" to Graceful bamboo because they are both members of the Textilis family of bamboos.  

The new shoots come up fairly close to existing canes, which produces a nice tight clump that will not only look attractive but help to provide a dense privacy screen.

Emerald is one of the cleanest, neatest looking specimens we carry.  The tall, straight canes on this timber bamboo have very few side shoots so they rarely need pruning.  The space between culm sections is unusually long, which give the bamboo an especially striking appearance. 

The new canes have a slight bluish tint

Another striking feature is the slight blue tint that appears on new shoots and remains throughout the first year of growth.  After that, the blue changes to an emerald green color, which means at all times the clump has multiple shades of color.

The four clumps of Emerald that I'm standing next to are just 1 year old.  Each one started with a single cane planted 4' apart.  In only one growing season they have formed a tall, full hedge. 

Many people who look at Emerald in our demonstration area say, "This is what bamboo is supposed to look like." 

Planted in 2002, this mature specimen of Bambusa textilis Emerald also started out with just one single cane.  Look at it now!

The earliest "shooter" - Bambusa chungii barbellata - "baby blue"

New shoots in Baby Blue come out at an angle curving upward as they grow to form what ultimately looks like a coffee mug shaped plant.

It's amazing that baby blue is sending out new shoots in February. All of our other clumping bamboos wait until the weather warms up in May but not baby blue. It's ready to emerge from its winter slumber in mid-February. Even though the temperatures are sill in the 40-50s, Bambusa chungii barbellata - "baby blue" - is already sending out new shoots!  What a prolific - the most prolific - clumping bamboo!

Our daughter Jenny poses in front of a 3-year-old clump of Baby Blue.  Note how dense the clump - which started with just one cane - has become in just 3 growing seasons!

New shoots have a blue powdery tint