Grass and Bamboo: Happy Yellow Groove Bamboo & it's friend Joe Pye Weed !, 1 by Hikaro_Takayama

Hikaro_Takayama wrote:
Immature Yellow groove bamboo culms tend to droop a lot, however, as the grove nears maturity (5-8 years on average), the culms get stronger and more upright. The newest, and tallest culms (produced in the last 3-4 years) are almost ramrod straight. I have, in almost 10 years that the grove has been growing, only had 2 culms break under snow and ice during the winter. 1 was in the winter of 2001, when we had a pretty bad snow storm that broke 20 ft high culm, which I left where it lay (it was still growing) until this August when I cut off the broken part, and let it dry slowly in the garage (No splitting, I'm happy to report), and I ended up with a 17 ft bamboo pole that reaches to the edge of the roof of my 2 story house. The other culm that broke was last year during a bad ice storm we had that also brought down some large tree brances (and even a few small trees).....

As for the Blue Fountain bamboo, here's a pic.... The wire cage is not for winter protection, which this bamboo definitely does NOT need, but to keep the local rabbits from eating it to death during the winter (anytime we get any heavy snowfall, the rabbits will eat any unprotected culms that are 1/2" in diamater or less).

I'd say that it is too late to plant any but the hardiest bamboos.... The best time to transplant (or plant) bamboo is early spring, when the ground thaws... I.e. there is still a chance of frost, but not of a hard freeze.... basically March, around where I live. That way, they are still dormant, but the danger of really cold weather is past, and they will start growing whenever they normally break dormancy (my F. nitida shoots in late May, along with the P. atrovaginata and Pseudosasa japonica, the A. Gigantea shoots around Mid-lage July or Early August, as does the P. rubromarginata, whereas my Semiarundinaria Fastuosa shoots in Late April/early May like the P. aureosulcata).