This is a wonderful plant, both beautiful and well-behaved. Unlike most bamboos, which have earned a bad reputation for running, Fargesia...Read More species form clumps which expand only very slowly. No root barriers are required.
This elegant bamboo was collected in 1997 from the mountains of Pingwu county in Sichuan, China at an elevation over 8,500 feet, and was first brought to the west by Jos van der Palen of Kimmei Nursery in Holland. There is no consensus on which species this clone belongs to, and it's most correctly called Fargesia sp. 'Scabrida'. It's generally considered top hardy only to -5F, USDA Z6b.
Like all fargesias, this performs best with protection from afternoon sun. Unlike most bamboos, it prefers light shade, and tolerates heavy shade. It does not perform well in hot summer climates like that of the southeastern US.
Fargesias are gracefully vase-shaped, fountainlike, with the outermost culms usually tending to bend almost to the ground under the weight of their foliage. This clone is more upright than most, and better adapted for use as a screen. Its maximum height is about 15'.
Bamboos are monocarpic---they die shortly after flowering. With bamboos, this happens only every hundred years or so, and somehow all members of a species all over the world tend to go to flower within a few years of each other. That happened with F. mruielae in the 1990's and with F. nitida between 2002 and 2008.
Some nurseries may still be selling the old cultivars, which were selected a century ago and are likely to be moribund if not extinct. Most are now selling seedlings of the new generation, which should be good for another century. It pays to make sure you know which you are purchasing.
Very hardy in the Vancouver Washington area. This clumper is taller and has thicker canes than F nitida, but shorter and thinner canes th...Read Morean F robusta. It stays much more upright than F rufa, but is just as dense and has the same deep green glossy leaves. The canes are very colorful, and range from purple to red to yellow to green with everything in between, depending on the amount of sun the gets to it's base. It also tolerates dividing very well, and rebounds very quickly from it's roots being messed with. Basically, this bamboo has all the best aesthetic qualities of most of the other more common clumping bamboos all by itself. It also stays much more lush looking throughout winter, and does not end up looking ragged in the spring. Simply put, one of the best new bamboos to come around in a long time. If you can find it, get it!
This is a wonderful plant, both beautiful and well-behaved. Unlike most bamboos, which have earned a bad reputation for running, Fargesia...Read More
Very hardy in the Vancouver Washington area. This clumper is taller and has thicker canes than F nitida, but shorter and thinner canes th...Read More