Relocating a large clump of Yin-Yang bamboo

Timmy and Ralph relocate a two-year-old Yin-Yang bamboo

My office window faces a clay wall that we carved out of a hillside years ago in order to build our house.  The wall is not particularly attractive and to hide it we have planted bamboos.  A couple days ago we transplanted a two-year-old clump of Bambusa emeiensis viridiflavus or Yin-Yang to a spot directly across from my office window.

Timmy lowers the bamboo into a prepared hole filled with a good base of our custom soil mix, Bamboo Booster.  When planting bamboo, it is important to replace nutrient poor soil with a rich, light soil mixture and to water the transplanted bamboo during daylight hours for as long as possible.

 
Now I can look out at Yin-Yang, which is currently my favorite bamboo.  It's a large-caned bamboo with an unusual striping pattern.  Although the culms (canes) are green, alternating sides of each culm are striped with a series of vertical yellow lines.  The culm sections are also banded by a fairly broad horizontal white line that is particularly attractive and distinctive.

Yellow stripes and a broad white band add to Yin-Yang's allure

Yin-Yang also has pretty leaves that grow differently than many other clumpers.  It has a very Asian feel to it that makes me think of a zen garden or meditative space.  Simply looking at this special bamboo is soothing.  That's especially helpful when I'm stressing out over particularly full workload or impending deadlines.

YIN YANG TIMBER BAMBOO Bambusa emeiensis viridiflavus

Ralph recently thinned out one of our favorite clumping bamboos, Yin Yang Timber.  This 2-year-old line of four plants started out with a single cane from 3-gal containers when they were first planted.  Now, 2 years later, the four clumps have grown together into a solid wall of green.  A little thinning shows off the beautiful canes. 

Every year, the new shoots that appear during the warm summer months are larger diameter and taller than previous year's growth.  In larger-cane bamboos like Yin Yang, we like the way it looks if the smaller, more original canes are removed in order to showcase the more spectacular looking larger diameter new growth. 


The poles that were removed (shown in the bottom left image) are straight and can be used for building or craft projects.