Where did the new boos go?

At the beginning of last month, I wrote about seven new bamboos I had just acquired. After several weeks in quarantine and a couple rounds of neem oil and miticide (just to be sure they were free of bamboo mites before planting them out in the garden) I put five of them in the ground. Don't get too excited. These are small, young plants, and like all small, young plants, most of them are rather unimpressive and lost in the landscape at this early stage. They'll need a couple years to grow and fill out before they begin to make an impact.

First up is Fargesia robusta 'Robusta'. I'm challenging this plant a bit by planting it in a spot that I know is on the dry side. Robusta is generally a very tough species, so I think it will do well here provided I water it well to establish. Yes, that's it in the center, the little tuft of green poking from the disturbed soil. 

Here's a photo of the same bed I took on November 3rd, right after planting a Taxodium mucronatum I picked up at Cistus Nursery. You can see the Fargesia robusta to the right, where the end of the black soaker hose curls. The large, dark, glossy leaves of the Fargesia will make a wonderful contrast under the light, airy foliage of the Taxodium. I love this photo. I can almost pretend I have a garden without disgusting lawn.

Next up is Chusquea argentina, or Chusquea culeou 'Argentina', depending on you you ask. I decided to plant it on the mound of salal. If you can't tell where this is, that's because I rarely show this area. It's kind of an ugly bit on the edge of the garden. Late this winter or early spring I plan to renovate the salal by cutting it all to the ground. This will not only allow the salal to grow back looking better, it will also allow me to remove the blackberries, both native and invasive, and other weeds that make this area so ugly. In addition, this is a bit of a rabbit haven, so I'd like to reduce their cover, particularly going into the spring breeding season. Anyway, back to the bamboo. It will help to shade this area, making it less suitable for blackberries and other weeds. We can also see it from the dining room and patio.

As it grows, it will make a lovely green contrast against the red maple in fall. You may be able to just make it out in this photo, a spot of bright green partly obscured by the left-most branch of the Cotinus 'Grace' in its fall color.

Next is the red-stemmed Chusquea culeou. I planted it in this bed, at the edge of the salal, behind the Rhus typhina 'Bailtiger' (Tiger Eyes). You may be able to just make out the thin plant, if you really look closely. 

Here's a closer look at it. Exciting right? Chusquea are difficult to divide and can be challenging to grow in containers, so this is pretty normal for a young Chusquea. Hopefully, it establishes well here and takes off in spring, like my Chusquea culeou 'Scandens', which doubled in height this year.

Yushania brevipaniculata 'Wolong' is my first Yushania species and I'm sort of putting it to the test with a somewhat challenging site. It's a bit on the dry side. Yushania tend to have deeper roots than most bamboo, so they are potentially more drought tolerant. I want to find out. I also think it will just look amazing in this area, spreading in its loosely clumping/semi-running fashion, with arching, plumed stems of small, delicate leaves. I really am quite infatuated with this bamboo.

I also divided it so I could plant it on the other side of the path. I'm hoping it takes off in this bed and helps to shade things from the harsh afternoon sun this area gets. 

Pulling back a bit, it becomes difficult to see the young bamboo at all. It's just a bit to the right of the tree with the climbing hydrangea growing up the trunk. I plan to train it to grow in a row behind the Epimedium, creating an arching screen. If needed, I'll thin it regularly to keep it airy instead of dense.

On the other side of the path, where the smaller division is, you can't see it at all. It's somewhere just to the left of that sword fern lit by the sun. I actually want it to grow further into the interior of this bed, but planted it near the western edge first in hopes of providing more shade sooner. It doesn't look bad from this angle, but there's a lot of scorched foliage in this bed. For those of you who are new or don't remember, I finished planting this shade garden right before the neighbors clear-cut, turning a densely shaded area into a challenging site with mid-day shade and intense afternoon sun. Anyway, as the Yushania grows, I'll move a few divisions into the interior of the bed, where they can arch up and over the sea of Hakonechloa.

And the last of the bamboos that I planted, Thamnocalamus crassinodus 'Mendocino'. I actually dug up a 3-foot tall and wide Rhododendron rex to make room for this bamboo. I'd had the rhododendron for 6 years, and it grew but the leaves always became disfigured. I'm fairly certain it was a lack of sufficient water or humidity in spring, as it was worse when we had spring heat waves and improved during this past cool, wet spring. The soil here is a bit too heavy, so the rhododendron, shallow-rooted by nature, couldn't sink roots deeper to tap into more water. Hopefully, the Thamnocalamus will be able to handle the soil better. It delicate foliage does look marvelous against the Parablechnum cordatum, though it will eventually (fingers crossed) grow to 18 feet tall and the foliage will be well above the ferns. The rhododendron was safely rehomed to a friend with a sheltered hillside having rich soil and a spring. Should be perfect for it.

What about the remaining two boos? They'll have to wait until I can decided where to plant them. The Borinda contracta is a clumper, but appears rather arching in the few photos I can find, so it needs some space. The Qionzhuea tumidissinoda is a runner and has a reputation for being very vigorous, so I need to put it somewhere I can contain it. It also prefers ample water and some protection from hot afternoon sun, which makes it somewhat challenging. Then again, I know one person growing it in fairly dry shade, where it is slow to spread, growing more like a clumping bamboo, and I've seen photos of it grown in half-barrel containers and even as bonsai in smaller containers. The effect is rather like the narrow-leaved Acer palmatum cultivars in the Linearilobum group, called the strap-leaved or, rather appropriately, bamboo-leaved maples.