Watch OUT! The Joe Pye Weed is NEARLY as tall as the Yellow Groove!!!!! Over 11' tall and HUGE flower heads. It's never been this tall - and is apparently trying to take over the world - (or at least the bamboo space!).
And the bamboo - 3rd year watch out - soon it'll be in your yard! It's one of my favorite things.
Kara
Wow! that's some Joe-pye weed you got there.... We have a purple variety that grows up in the mountains around here that gets about that big, though.
I also have a yellow groove bamboo grove that'll be 10 years old next spring, and it covers a bout 2x the area your grove does, and the culms for the past 3 years have hit 25 ft in height!
Mine's growing in a small woods behind the house..... I've noticed that, since mine's grown in partial to light shade, my grove has not spread as fast as other groves in the area, however, it is, on average, higher than most other groves of similar (or even older) age in the area.
Glad you're enjoying yours, though. BTW, have you tried growing any Fargesia nitida (Blue Fountain Bamboo)? It's reliably hardy to about Z4b, and is clump forming, meaning it couldn't run even if it was being chased down the mountain by a pack of starving pandas... I have a two year old clump that's about 5 ft high now, and it is absolutely beautiful.
wow - 25' - that's awesome! mine is growing in partial shade as well - it's been in about 3yrs. the growth seems fairly manageable too (famous last words i know) - it stays evergreen - and looks beautiful covered with snow. although, i do go out and shake the snow off of it so it won't break! i'm finding the tallest culms are leaning over a lot during the growing season - do you find that at 25' or is it standing upright? glad you like the joe pye weed - it just keeps getting bigger. even the photo doesn't really give you the true feeling of just how big it is...
i've planted some more of the yellow groove (dug up roots etc) in the back yard (way out back where it can spread) - a shady spot - and it has sent up a new culm in the past week - i was very surprised to see that this late in the growing season.
do you have a pic of your Blue Mountain Bamboo? i'll look it up. is it too late to put bamboo in now do you think? i'm still putting in evergreens that i'm finding at a deep discount at local garden centers...
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).
