bamboo shooting season rising new shoots 31 May 2011 turions

This year has really been by far the most impressive year as far as gains, and some of my bamboos are putting out 1 inch diameter new shoots which will likely break the 10ft mark in a week or so. With consistently warm temperatures, a bamboo shoot will grow around 95% of it's height within a 2 week span, and some of my shoots are just starting to enter that stage.

Dulcis: Most of it's shoots are surprisingly coming off the same rhizome, and there are not too many of them, but it's planted in the shade so it shouldn't be growing as aggressively. The biggest 2 are around the 1 inch mark.

birds in the garden

This is just a brief post on some of the birds that live around my garden, and some of these guys stay here all summer.

Pigeons. These guys love to sit around the base of my bamboo groves, maybe because of the shade or to eat the bugs around.

Update on the Bananas and gunneras

Since the weather is finally becoming pleasant, I would like to give some updates on the bananas and gunneras. Corm plants tend to respond to heat very well.

Here's my bigger musa basjoo after a week of removing the winter protection.

Take 2 on measuring bamboo shoots with a caliper

By now, most of my bamboos have started to shoot. Sometimes bamboos tend to gain diameter because they were not all the way out yet however sometimes the culm sheaths make the shoots look bigger than they actually are. Anyways the main show for this year's boo shooting season is under way with Atrovaginata currently in the need, giving me shoots over 1 inch in diameter.

Phyllostachys Atrovaginata incense bamboo: I'll start out with the best. Last year's culms were only about 1/3 inch in diameter, but this year, they are clearly over the 1 inch mark, and hopefully I'll get a 1.5 incher if I'm lucky.

More bamboo shoots growing taller 22 May 2011

Just another update on the bamboo shoots. Some of them are almost done growing like the moso, and some of the potted ones. As long as we keep getting warm temperatures, they should grow pretty fast.

Moso bicolor: This is the first shoot that is twice as big as the original culms at around 2/3 inch in diameter so it should get up to a good 6-7ft as long as the weather holds up.

Sedum succulent garden hardy succulents

Aside from sempervivums, one of the other succulents that can be grown in zone 6 would be sedums which are ground cover succulents which I use to highlight the edge of my garden stream. These proliferate very fast, and tolerate almost any kind of conditions so therefore I plant them straight in clay soil, knowing that they will grow well.

Here's my original species. I don't know the name of it, but if anyone can help me out with it, any help would be greatly appreciated. This covers an area of about 1ft by 6ft. Just found out it is sedum 'Sarmentosum' thanks to Cheryl

Bamboos at multiple stages of development from new divisions to established groves

Here's an update on most of the newest divisions I have either taken off my in ground plants, as well as some of the newest acquisitions through trades this year. I have over 30 species of bamboo ranging from ground covers to giant grove forming types.

Pleioblastus distichus: This is a new one off a trade which is a ground cover, and just starting to make some small shoots.

Size of my largest bamboo shoots so far 14 May, 2011

Shooting season has started only a couple weeks ago, and some species are still dormant so I think there are larger shoots to come than what I already have, but here's the largest shoots from each of my species so far. I measure at the base, and don't count the sheaths, so they may look bigger than what I say they are.

Moso: The biggest one is around 0.75 however there are many similar in size. That's quite a bit larger than the largest last year that was only about 0.42.

Bamboo shoots 13 May 2011

With 2 consecutive days of temperatures near 80F it looks like most of the bamboos are waking up, even Dulcis which is usually one of the later ones. The in ground parvifolia, and atrovaginata are the ones I'm expecting the most out of so they'll probably come later.

Here are some of my moso shoot pictures, all from the in-ground moso. The tallest one is well over 2ft now, but the fattest ones will ultimately end up the tallest at the end.

Sempervivum update May 13, 2011

All the sempervivums that were bought about 3 months ago started as little cuttings, but they have all doubled or tripled in diameter and some of them are starting to make chicks. I believe some species will be able to put out over 10 chicks in a year, but I'll find out soon enough.


Here are 5 of them with chicks already produced. They will probably get several inches away from the hen, and perhaps become established enough this year to make their own chicks.

Update on the lilies.

I grow around 8 different species of lilium, and they generally grow about 1 inch a day on average until they reach full height. Some of the smaller ones, more like 1/2 inch a day since they only get up to 2-3ft. I think I might get a few 8 footers this year. Here's some of them in my collection.

Wall o water results after 4 days of use

A week ago, I received my wall of water which are plastic things that can get filled up with water to create a wall of water around the plant, and this is supposed to prevent the effect of frosts as well as extend the season. The biggest benefit is that it is supposed to heat the soil which is an important factor in a northern climate. Let's see how it helps some of my plants. These pictures are taken 4 days apart.

Gunnera division. They are slow growing anyways so not much change. I don't really understand why this uploader rotates pictures sometimes, but it does. 

Update on bamboo shoots May 9th

Just an update on the boo shoots. Let's start with the big moso. It is clearly showing mature characteristics with the brown furry sheaths, and dark spots. They look a lot different from that of last year. So far the moso has probably been the most rewarding however the most cold hardy, and biggest boos still need to shoot, and that should happen once we get a warm rain.

Progress on the lilies and tree peony

I've been growing several species of lilies, and these can range from 2ft or higher than 7ft, exceeding 1 inch in diameter at the base. They appeared in the beginning of April, and will probably flower some time in July since they take their time to grow, especially the larger species. The one I'm taking the most pictures of got up to near 7ft last year, and it should break the 8ft mark with 2 stalks this time. I don't know how they do it, but usually there are little bulblets that appear around the plant in the spring that I pot up, so I'm assuming it either comes from the roots, or something.

Here's the biggest one with both stems above 1 inch in diameter over a period of 3 weeks.

sempervivum hens and chicks succulent cold hardy plant

Here are some of the hens and chicks, sempervivum collection I started this year. These are cold hardy down to zone 3-4 and grow almost everywhere, and I'm trying to build a nice collection of them. I bought most of these from SMG squaw mountain gardens succulents, and also recently gained a few more species. Once these guys produce their own chicks and proliferate, I am definitely interested in more trades to have more species.

Some of them look pretty similar, but I took pictures of most of them trying to avoid repeats.

These are the first ones to start producing chicks which after about a month will set their own roots in their ground and form new plants. 

alliums

Alliums are some of the easiest plants to grow since they are very cold hardy. I kept few 1-3 inch onion sets in the garage over last winter where the temperature still dropped to the teens or below however despite becoming frozen solid, these onions started to sprout while they were still inside the garage, feeding off the starches they have built up since last year. These were grown last year from seed, and some were harvested, but these are the extras.