Cutting it down to the ground will not help, nor will rooting hormone. I suspect you got a plant that had very little root ball and had minimal chance of survival, or the roots had been allowed to dry out. It may survive if you keep it moist, but I can give you a better opinion if you provide some details about how tall it is, what it looked like when you got it, and how large a root ball it had. I am assuming that this plant did come with a decent size root system...?

The roots were not very much, sadly. But I did not notice until I got home, I kept it in a towel for te 4 hour ride home that was moist. The leaves turned brownish/yellowish and fell off. There is one leaf that I didn't notice that is green but is almost dead. I water it every day until it is almost swimming and allow the water to drain. It had thin leaves and was about 1' when I got them. There were 5 in a pot, but only 2 don't turn yellow. Thanks for the help!

john-
When taking a division for transplanting, the two most important things -- besides keeping it moist during transport -- are: 1) getting a big enough rootball (I usually take something at least basketball size), and 2) getting one or more fully grown culms, preferably at least a year old. When you take a division that has such small culms, they are new ones that are still dependent on the rest of the plant for survival. Your approach might work with many other plants, but not bamboo.

There is a tiny chance that the root might survive and put up a shoot next spring, but I am not optimistic. If you want to be successful growing bamboo, you need to take an adequate division next time, or simply buy a potted, stabilized plant.

Duplicate...deleted.

This post was edited by kudzu9 on Mon, Sep 2, 13 at 12:15

In New York, should i leave the pot outside. The mother platn was outside?

It depends on how hardy it is, which is a function of the species. Do you know what it is?

Bamboo in pots tend to be about 10 degrees F less hardy than plants in the ground. If you get below freezing in your area, and given the compromised nature of what you have, it may fare better indoors over the winter if it is warm, watered, and in a sunny spot.

kudzu9 is hardcore with 'basketball' sized rootballs.... which is GREAT, but I've had very good success with grapefruit sized rootballs... I have good success even with rhizomes as long as they have decent roots, are thick, and close to a foot long. The bigger the root system the better chance they'll live and quicker they'll spread.

I dug a dead one up and they were thin and one foot long. The bamboo was growing fine outdoors in Delaware city, so I guess it would be ok as I'm in the same climate. But given its nature, you recommend to put it inside?

I was given individual shoots, not a clump with multiple shoots attached.

john-
If you have multiples, put some inside and some outside and see what happens. Bamboo generally do better outside and in the ground, but if you have something that is not well established -- which sounds like your situation -- it may do better if it's not subjected to extreme winter weather. If yours makes it alive over the winter, then by all means keep it outside in the future.

One other thing, what exactly do you have? Digging up a dead one as a start for a new plant does not sound promising. And how much root did you get with what you were given? With bamboo, the root system is the critical thing to survival, not what you can see aboveground.

Only 2 stems are alive right now. Both leaves are gone and the color is slightly lighter green than when I got it. It has about 3 root pieces/ shoots a piece when I planted.

How big was the root system?