Help me choose bamboo for dry summer

9 years ago

Hello!
I would like to grow a grove of bamboo that would be 9 to 30 feet tall - taller would be fine but I doubt that I could give the conditions that would be needed - so I am assuming that growing a bamboo that has a mature height in that range would be good idea rather than choosing something that will be stunted- right?

I live in the southwest corner of the pacific northwest, between the Coast Range and the Cascades (south of Eugene). From my reading it seems that the main problem that I will have is that our annual summer drought really hits hard in July - September. I can water a bit but for the areas that I would like to cover it would be best if the plant could at least survive without it once established.

Summers are dry with fairly low humidity during the heat of the day. Nightime temperatures can easily swing 30 degrees (ex: 94 F daytime high, 64 F nighttime low) which is not ideal for many plants.

The positive things would be that our winter is fairly mild with a low of around plus 10 F for a very short period every few years and having a whole week with the temp never going above freezing is rare (the lawn is green now.) Our spring is mild but it seems fairly short - I could water as much as I need thru June. Late September through October the rain starts back up with a lot of growing time left in season.

I do not have any problem with containment. Lots of room and I can't imagine a plant that does not have thorns, or give you rashes, and is actually visible that I could not deal with fairly easily. If that fails, I have goats too! They are relentless ( and will be fenced out if anything is to live).

From my reading Phyllostachys rubromarginata sounds like it might be a good one to try. Another that I would like to work but am not sure of is Pseudosasa japonica for a screen around the edges.

Others that I am considering:

Phyllostachys aurea "Golden"- common for a reason?
Phyllostachys glauca
Phyllostachys nigra - but don't really need anything other than just plain green to be interesting here
Phyllostachys decora - I have read about it doing well in Utah, similar summers.

Any input will be appreciated! Perhaps there is not a bamboo that would work at all?

Thoughts, musings, anecdotes?

Comments (5)

cheapheap
Original Author
9 years ago
All the best.

V

V

V
User
9 years ago
Decora and Rubromarginata are going to be the most hardy and drought tolerant, and two that I own for those reasons. Where I'm at in Oregon I get very cold winters, wind, and also desert type heat all summer. Both of those are sold to Desert type states often. You're still going to have to water often the first few years though for it to get established. I'd stay away from Aurea. We got down to 10 degrees this winter and all the Aurea in town is fried really bad. It looks horrible. And it barely makes it in the summer heat. The one down the street that never get's watered is at deaths door. Nigra is not much better. Get's fried really easy in the cold. Not sure how drought tolerant it is though. I know in Portland a friend of mines Nigra grows like a clumper since it's not watered. So not very fast going. And Portland is a far cry from hot and dry. Just be careful of Rubro, it grows like mad.
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Polypompholyx
9 years ago
tcameronk, what's the USDA zone at your location? You described cold winters, wind, and desert heat during summer at your location. Sounds like my location but I'm in Idaho. I have Phyllostachys nuda but it has to regrow canes every year. It should be one of the most cold hardy but I suspect its hardiness was exaggerated a bit. I've been looking for other bamboos to try.

cheapheap, Bamboo HQ has a desert hardy bamboo section. I thought Semiarundinaria fastuosa was in that list but I don't see it now. I haven't had experience growing the bamboo in the desert hardy section.
therealcheapheap
9 years ago
Sorry that I did not check back sooner!

tcameronk- I have not ordered the Rubro or Decora yet- this is just what I needed to get myself going. I just found a Phylostachys Vivax in a gallon pot locally- I will plant it in my second best spot and order one or both of the others soon.

Polypompholyx - Thanks for adding to my list. I am definately set on trying a Phyllostachys first but Semiarundinaria fastuosa according to bamboogarden is the largest hardy bamboo for the pnw that is not a Phyllostachys. It is very beautiful.

I am pretty sure that tcameronk lives east of the Cascades in Oregon. Probably somewhere East of the gorge and NE of Bend. I think that a lot of the information that I had gathered before my initial post was probably from him (with thanks). It is strange that we are in different areas but have one thing in common - little to no rain during the main growing season. In a fairly wet year here if you did not water a tomato plant then you would not have tomatos!

Best wishes and thanks, this is going to be a great year for growing.
User
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I'm a little outside of Hood River. As soon as you get past Hood River heading East is when Oregon becomes more desert and colder. I'm zone 7a but with the massive wind in winter it might as well be zone 5 lol. The wind will blow my newer bamboo to the ground for a month straight sometimes with maybe a day or two of calm. It's nuts out here. Although this year was very mild, not very cold or windy. We get less than 14 inches of rain a year. And summer can be 100 degrees full sun for 3 months straight (and wind to boot), got up to 106 degrees last summer. The coldest on record was in 1950 when it got to -25 f. Yikes. Hope I never see that in my life time.

Vivax is not quite as hardy. And you will get more leaf burn and maybe some culm death in bad winters (well in your area the culms should be fine). But it's still pretty tough for bamboo. And huge. Although it has thin walls, in heavy wind and ice storms or heavy snow they will break under the load, they say it sounds like shotguns going off when those big ones break (one guy back east said his entire Vivax grove was almost decimated from the ice storm). a total mess. I have some Vivax H.Inversa which is more rare, but I chose to leave it in pots and bring it in for winter for those very reasons. As much as I'd love to because it's an awesome huge bamboo, I don't think it's a good idea for me to put it in the ground. You might be ok where you are at though. Since you have it, give it a shot and see how it fares. You'll probably have to water it more though than the other ones I recommended.