Bamboo winter damage survey

Today's post might not appeal to everybody. It will be long, at least if measured by the number of photos (41), and somewhat painful for me to put together. That's because today's post is a survey of all of my unprotected bamboos to see how they're holding up to the winter so far. This isn't about the bamboos that are in the greenhouse, nor is it about the plants that I covered with plastic for the winter.

This is about the plants that are in the ground and exposed to the elements. The harsh, bamboo-hating winter elements. If you grow bamboo you'll probably be interested in seeing how things are doing. If you don't grow bamboo you may still enjoy seeing how the different plants hold up during the winter. If you're not interested in plants at all, then you're probably out of luck today.

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Before jumping into the photos I should explain that any dark green, flat, glossy leaves are fine. Leaves that are light green or grey, curled up, or brown -- those are damaged or dead leaves. So more dark green is good -- ideally we want the bamboos to hold all of their leaves through the winter with no damage. Besides adding some much needed green to the garden, a bamboo that has kept a good number of leaves has the best chance of "sizing up" in the spring -- producing thicker and taller culms than it currently has.

I'll be keeping comments to a minimum here, and let the photos do the talking. I grouped them by genus to help compare between different species of the same genus. In most cases there are two photos for each plant, an overview and a closeup. Enjoy.

Indocalamus longiauritus

Indocalamus longiauritus - very little damage. Love this bamboo!

Indocalamus tesselatus - I expect this to do better once it matures

Ind. tesselatus - there is green underneath, so
maybe I should protect this one next year

Sasa tsuboiana

Sasa tsuboiana - a moderate amount of burn

Sasa veitchii - looks like it will get mowed down this year

Sasaella masamuneana 'Albostriata'

Sasaella masamuneana 'Albostriata' - the damage
almost follows the stripes on the leaves

Sasaella bitchuensis

Sasaella bitchuensis - looks better than the tsuboiana

Phyllostachys bissetii - quite cold-hardy

Phyllostachys bissetii - but still shows some damage

Phy. bissetii #2 -- large division from mature
plant shows much less damage

Phy. bissetii #2 - Actually, almost no damage at all

Phyllostachys aureosulcata

Phy. aureosulcata - shows just a touch of curled leaves

Phyllostachys aureosulcata 'Aureocaulis'

Phy. aureosulcata 'Aureocaulis' - shows a fair amount of curled leaves.

Phyllostachys aureosulcata 'Spectabilis'

Phy. aureosulcata 'Spectabilis' - some damage but not too much

Phyllostachys atrovaginata

Phy. atrovaginata - looks pretty good, but some leaf damage

Phyllostachys glauca 'Yunzhu' - major damage

Phy. glauca 'Yunzhu' - this is the north side; the south side is a little better

Phyllostachys rubromarginata - very little damage if any

Phy. rubromarginata - this was a large division from a mature plant

Now an interesting comparison of three plants that are supposedly the same species, Fargesia dracocephala 'Rufa'. A shrubby, clumping bamboo that is quite cold-hardy.

Fargesia 'Rufa' #1 - my oldest bamboo

'Rufa' #1 - has some burn on top. I can't remember if
it gets this every year, or if this is more damage than usual.

Fargesia 'Rufa' #2 - very little damage

'Rufa' #2 - just a few burned leaves

Fargesia 'Rufa' #3 - is it dead?

'Rufa' #3 - not a green leaf in sight.

That third 'Rufa' is the one I planted later in the season this year, and I'm really surprised that it looks the way it does. It's probably "topkilled", meaning that all of the above-ground growth has died. If so it will be a big disappointment. Since this is one of the earliest shooters in the spring (end of March), I won't have to wait too long to find out what's going on here.

Moving on to bamboos that I expect to have substantial to major damage each year...

Semiarundinaria okuboi - looks like this every year
but leafs back out again in the spring

Semiarundinaria okuboi - there is some green left in there

Semiarundinaria fastuosa 'Viridis' - most
of the upper leaves are fried

Semiarundinaria fastuosa 'Viridis' - there is some green left in there though

Pseudosasa viridula - I expect this one
to topkill each year. It's just here as a test
which so far it's failed.

Pleioblastus fortunei - this gets mowed down each year

Pleioblastus viridistriatus - gets mowed too.

That concludes the look at the cold damage so far this year. Unfortunately there's quite a lot of damage for this early in the year, as late January through February is usually pretty tough. That means I'll probably do another survey like this in early March or so but hopefully there won't be much more damage to show at that time.

Now I think I'll go look at photos from this past summer to remind me what the garden should look like.