Springtime in the bamboo grove

It's spring and that means the running bamboos are shooting! New bamboo culms are emerging at an astonishing rate.

Below are three pictures of one particularly beautiful specimen - Phyllostachys vivax huangwenzhu, which we call Green-Gold Vivax Timber Bamboo.

A broad yellow vertical stripe appears on alternating culm section of Green-Gold Vivax Timber Bamboo 

This young shoot is reaching for the sky as it grows upward through a window of bamboo leaves

Looking down at a newly emerged shoot from above.  In just a few days, this relatively small shoot will tower over my head and I'll have to look up to take a picture

Introducing Two Striking New Varieties of Vivax

Vivax is our favorite running bamboo! A grove of beautiful VIVAX TIMBER BAMBOO (Phyllostachys vivax) looks like the type of place where you'd find a panda nibbling away on leaves and shoots.

Sun shining through a mature grove of vivax timber bamboo

For the past four years we have been propagating two new varieties of this most special bamboo - GREEN-GOLD VIVAX TIMBER BAMBOO (P.vivax huangwenzhu) and GOLD-GREEN VIVAX TIMBER BAMBOO (P.vivax aureocaulis)

Like Phyllostachys vivax, the two new cultivars also produce tall (30' to 70'), large-diameter (3 to 6 inch) canes with black rings around each culm section node.  The difference is that while Phyllostachys vivax has beautiful solid green canes that fade as they age to a paler whitish green, Green-gold vivax produces green canes with vertical gold stripes while Gold-green vivax has golden canes with vertical green stipes.

Gold-green vivax has golden canes with vertical green stripes of irregular widths 

Green-gold vivax has bright green canes with vertical golden stripes of irregular widths

All three varieties of Vivax spread slowly until well established, then shoot more vigorously after several years to become wonderful open groves of huge canes.

Our grandchildren enjoy playing in our mature groves of vivax timber bamboo

Our original Phyllostachys vivax grove, planted in 2000, has been easy to control with regular mowing and trimming around the area where we want it to stay. Young shoots of all vivax varieties are particularly good to eat when cooked.

New shoots of P.vivax are tasty as well as beautiful

  

A close-up of the pretty colors of an emerging P.vivax culm 

We have found that inter-planting two or more varieties of vivax in one location results in a most attractive and interesting grove.  

A four-year-old grove of green-gold and gold-green vivax

If you are looking to create a peaceful, serene setting in your landscape, consider installing an assortment of vivax timber bamboos.  One day soon you too can sit back and enjoy the beauty!  

Vivax can create an inviting place to rest

Birds like bamboo too!

New shoots aplenty in the Vivax grove

A restful spot in the Vivax grove

The Vivax Timber Running Bamboo (Phyllostachys vivax) began sending out new shoots toward the end of February.  In the picture above, a small shoot can be seen in front of the right chair.

Spring is an exciting time of year because it is the beginning of the above-ground growing season for bamboo.  Two new shoots are visible in this picture. 

 

 

The excitement of seeing new shoots emerge

It is exciting to watch new shoots emerge and grow taller day by day

A customer who recently purchased some Vivax Running Bamboos and some Seabreeze Clumping Bamboo sent this email:

I was busy most of the weekend so I didn't get out Saturday to check on them. Sunday afternoon I saw these shoots. 2 out of 3 of the Vivax have shoots. 2 on this plant and 3 thinner ones on another. Nothing new on the seabreeze yet, just lots of leaf growth. I saw these exactly 4 weeks after planting. Can't wait to measure them every day. You can tell I'm new to bamboo.  Very excited,  Michael

Spring is the time of year when all the running bamboos start sending up new shoots while clumpers wait a few months longer until the weather is warmer.  It really is exciting to watch those new canes emerge.  Not only is it thrilling to see the shoots pop out of the ground but, like Michael is doing, their growth can actually be measured daily and seeing that - especially when you've never grown bamboo before - can be amazing to watch.

Ralph stands next to a young Vivax cane here at Beautiful Bamboo.  The new shoot that he's touching is less than a week old!

 

 

How to control weeds in the bamboo

A customer wrote: 

We bought a Vivax and a Blue from you last fall. Both came through the winter with no damage and have already sent up bunches of new canes this spring. They are so pretty and so much fun. Every day, we go look just to see what's new!

 

What do you recommend for weed control around the bases of bamboo?

 

I recall that you planted ground cover plants around some of your clumps. What plants work well?

 

But I think most of your clumps were weed-free without a ground cover. Do you use a herbicide?

 

Would a 0.5-1% glyphosate spray hurt them if I removed the leaves that might get spray on them first? I would have guessed that, being grasses, they'd be sensitive but I gather from reading on the web that it's actually pretty hard to kill them with glyphosate.

 

I've looked around on your web site but didn't find any discussion of weed control. If it's there, please just point me to it.

 

My response:

I'm glad to hear that your plants are doing so well.  If you have time, email me some pictures.  I'd love to see them.

For weed control we recommend a heavy mulch.  Weed by hand any obvious weeds then apply as deep a mulch as you can around the bamboo.  You can use any type of natural mulch - leaves, wood bark, etc.  To make the mulch extra impervious to weeds, you can apply a thick layer of newspaper first and then mulch on top of them.  Unlike with trees, mulches can go right up around the base of the canes without worry or harm to the plants.

We don't use any herbicides at the nursery and don't recommend using them at home.  Bamboo is just a giant grass and although herbicides won't kill the bamboo, it won't do them any good either.  If you want to use a ground cover, I've found the following plants work well:  wedelia, ruellia and wandering jew.  Any other shade-loving ground cover would work as well.

Wedelia growing as a ground cover beneath a grove of Vivax running bamboo

Peaking through groves of bamboo

 Yesterday on a walk around the lake, Ralph snapped these photos of me posing with the 'boo. 

 

Above and below I'm standing in a grove of Vivax Timber Running Bamboo (Phyllostachys vivax). Vivax is one of my favorite running bamboos because it forms such an open grove with large, beautiful multi-colored canes.

Below I'm standing in the middle of a grove of Red Running Bamboo (Semiarundinaria fastuosa).  Although it is called Red Bamboo, most of the canes are green.  Here in Florida, the red color only appears in the winter if it gets cold enough and even then, only some of the canes turn a dark, ruby red.  Red bamboo also forms a somewhat open grove, although not as open as Vivax does, and the canes get fairly large but again, not as large as Vivax.  It is, however, a far more aggressive (and therefore harder to control) runner than Vivax.

Vivax Running Bamboo - New shoots emering!

It's always so exciting when Vivax running bamboo begins to shoot.  The young canes emerge with such promise of beauty and strength.   ... See my Tabblo>

Vivax sending up new shoots in February

 

Two new  2" diameter Vivax shoots have just emerged!  Vivax is a large-caned running bamboo and, like all runners, it sends up its new shoots earlier in the season than clumping bamboos.  But in February???  Not normally.  Yet the Vivax in one of our groves already thinks it's spring.  It's so exciting when new shoots emerge.