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Fargesia dracocephala ‘Rufa’

June 8, 2013 tarzan Comments 0 Comment

In April 2011, I found cheap Fargesia dracocephala ‘Rufa’ in one of the shopping centers. I instantly decided to add one clumping bamboo to my collection of seedlings I started growing the same year.

5l Fargesia murielae — 5l Fargesia dracocephala ‘Rufa’

Basic information:

Height: 2.5 to 3 m
Culm diameter: 1.5 cm
Hardiness: -16 to -25 °C
Characteristics: very cold hardy, clumping bamboo

5l pot contained one of the smallest plants they’ve had. Most of them had many tall broken shoots, so I grabbed the smallest bamboo with shoots that were still relatively young, compared to all the rest they’ve had. I knew it will soon make up the difference, with more undamaged shoots, the chances were even better.
I planted it into hard clay soil, with a lot of peat moss added to attract earthworms. Bamboo is placed in sheltered location with morning to mid-afternoon sun. It gets additional protection from tall forsythia that grows right next to it. Since fargesias are sensitive to hot weather, shaded soil where they grow is necessary, before they create thick canopy for themselves.

Planted fargesia murielae started it's second shooting in early summer. — Planted Rufa started its second shooting in early summer.

Numerous shoots appearing around the clump each spring.

Young shoots appear in early March while other bamboos usually still rest peacefully, waiting for warm spring to finally arrive. Shoots are covered with brown hair. Culm sheaths are purple to brown and fall off as soon as the first branches start to emerge. Fully leafed culms start to droop when initially small number of branches and leaves start increasing. Rain and especially snow can make the plant touch the ground completely. Culms can easily bend without breaking, so there’s only little danger for them to snap during winter. This bamboo is cold hardy to almost -30°C, which means, it can survive even without thick layer of snow insulation. During extremely cold and windy winter of 2011/2012, bamboo remained almost completely undamaged.

It doesnt take much to flatten Fargesia. — It doesn’t take much to flatten F. murielae.

Fargesia dracocephala 'Rufa' in June 2013. New shoots just starting to leaf out. — Fargesia dracocephala ‘Rufa’ in June 2013. New shoots just starting to leaf out.

Hairy F. Rufa shoots starting to emerge.

Countless shoots emerged all around the clump. Even tamed Fargesia can decide to spread around.

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Borinda fungosa

June 3, 2013 tarzan Comments 0 Comment

Culms exposed to sun turn to chocolate brown color.

Borinda is genus of a clumping bamboo that can grow considerably higher and thicker than Fargesia, but lucks it’s cold hardiness. Most of Borinda bamboos are cold hardy to around -10C. Borinda fungosa can be very vigorous grower, even when it’s just a small seedling. If it gets proper position to thrive, it tends to upsize fast. Bamboo has pachymorph rhizomes and forms dense clumps of yellowish culms. When Borinda fungosa gets enough sun exposure, culms can get nice looking dark brown color. Despite the color change, it can’t handle too much or too strong sun exposure. Borinda fungosa has strong tendency to ‘weep’, because soon after it branches out, weight of large amount of leaves start to bend the culm downwards.

Basic information:

Height: 3 to 4 m
Culm diameter: 2 cm
Hardiness: -8 to -10 °C
Characteristics: cold sensitive, vigorous, clumping bamboo, hairy shoots, sheathes and leaves, heat sensitive – not performing well in sunny locations

Seeds germinated in only a couple of days. Out of ten seedlings, two managed to sprout and both survived first couple of years. One of them was pampered from the very beginning and it showed how prolific and vigorous growth it is capable of, the other got almost killed on many occasions, but later, when placed outdoors, turned out as much better performer.

Three weeks old Borinda fungosa seedling

Borinda fungosa seedlings are growing fast and tend to upsize rapidly. Leaves are covered with hair which is very evident while the seedlings are still young – with larger plant, you can hardly notice that leaf characteristic. Shooting cycles were around three weeks apart at the beginning. With every shooting cycle, some kind of deficiency related leaf damage appeared. That problem went away when the plant got better established and could provide more nutrients to the upcoming shoots. Shooting almost completely stopped during the summer, and later happened again in early fall. Because it’s not cold hardy as some other bamboos, late shoots usually die off completely during the winter even if they are exposed only to a minor freezing.

When exposed to full sun, B. fungosa tends to fold it's leaves to prevent water loss. — When exposed to full sun, B. fungosa tends to fold it’s leaves to prevent water loss.

In the spring, it got attacked by European Corn Borer. Nearly all the early spring shoots were attacked and there was almost no upsize. Each of the shoots had caterpillar inside, which managed to eat most of the shoots all the way down to the soil level.

European corn borer from one of the destroyed shoots.

Hair on very large culm sheath that hardly allows node to come out

That's the reason it's called 'Chocolate Bamboo'. — That’s the reason it’s called ‘Chocolate Bamboo’.

Loosing most of the culms, seedling again started to look promising.

'Head' of fungosa shoot — ‘Head’ of fungosa shoot

Shoots are covered with dark hair and only a short portion of culm appears from it’s large culm sheath. It soon gets pushed away by numerous branches, growing from each of the nodes, turn to straw color and eventually falls of. Shoots appear hollow at first, because of it’s extra large culm sheathes. After a while, firs blades appear and growing shoots starts looking more similar to other bamboos.

Borinda fungosa in the fall, loosing some of it's leaves. — Borinda fungosa in the fall, loosing some of it’s leaves.

Borinda fungosa seedling appears to be one of bamboos, that loves to start shooting in the fall, when other bamboos usually already start with winter preparations. Around here, that usually means that new shoots are all killed by first couple of frosts. It’s also one of bamboos that gets a lot of yellow leaves in the fall which makes it stand out even more.

Borinda fungosa branching out in early autumn

New culms are covered with layer of wax coating

In the fall, a lot of leaves turn yellow and falls off. — In the fall, a lot of leaves start turning yellow and drop.

'Explosive' branching of Borinda fungosa. — ‘Explosive’ branching of Borinda fungosa.

Colorful culm with fresh set of branches.

During cold winter 2014/2015 when temperatures plunged down to -19°C, I managed to keep it well protected under thick pile of snow that fell just before the worst cold arrived. Culms were already thick, so it wasn’t the easiest job to bend the whole plant closer to the ground, but I managed to tarp it down and cover it with snow. It worked remarkably well and it not only survived the winter, it actually kept most of its foliage.