Garden

[Icegoddess]

@gardenman, you might be right about that.  We have been living in this house for a little over 20 years and the bamboo was there before we moved in.  Never had a problem with it until a few years ago.

[DiAnne]

I love bamboo, think it is beautiful and have always wanted it in my yard but the horror stories have stopped me.  I wonder if you could grow it in a pot on the patio?  Anyone know?

[JustJazzmom]

It would work being in a pot, but might crack that pot eventually. Why support buying a plant known to cause havoc in the environment? It's just supporting the bamboo plant industry. I would not buy it at all. Many communities across the nation are starting to enact laws banning the sale and planting of this highly invasive plant. This is a non native plant.

Don't buy it!

[jackthebear]

this is an invasive plant, and you should not plant it,  it is not allowed for sale in some areas 

[DowntonAbbey]

Hello IceGoddess........well what was planted here at the back door into the patio over 10 years ago is not going anywhere it is staying in the same place????   New shoots are all around it but only about 9????  I see some green in the bamboo on the ones that are brown so I hate to do anything to them.  These were so beautiful last year and now they look awful except for the new stripped ones coming up from the ground and they are not hooked to any brown one?  I did google and did not find out information and what I found did not make sense to me. Thank you for your input but I want more to grow???   This again has stayed in one little area and not gone out and its not all over..........I wish it was.

[Icegoddess]

@DowntonAbbey, the neighbors who planted the bamboo next door are long gone and the current neighbors don't do anything to it.  I don't remember ever seeing the people who planted it (before we moved in next door) ever doing anything to it, so probably just leave it alone.  

[DowntonAbbey]

Thank you I am so surprised it is staying in one section and now all over the yard???  I am also sad that there are brown shoots in the center and around the dead shoots are stripped greens ones coming up...........I am going to start watering every day as they probably love water. I need to call the cooperative extension and see if they will come out and look at it.

[gardenman]

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@DowntonAbbey wrote:

Thank you I am so surprised it is staying in one section and now all over the yard???  I am also sad that there are brown shoots in the center and around the dead shoots are stripped greens ones coming up...........I am going to start watering every day as they probably love water. I need to call the cooperative extension and see if they will come out and look at it.

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Some perennials grow outwards in a crown type shape with new growth occurring on the outer edge of the plant but the center largely dead or inactive. That could be what's happening with your bamboo. I don't grow bamboo so I can't say for sure, but that's largely how it sounds. In the perennial plant world we fix that by digging up the plant in the early spring or fall and cutting out the dead section in the middle, divide the ring of live growth into manageable sections and replant those sections wherever we'd like them to be. From one initial plant purchase you can end up with quite a few plants in this manner.

[Icegoddess]

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@gardenman wrote:

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@DowntonAbbey wrote:

Thank you I am so surprised it is staying in one section and now all over the yard???  I am also sad that there are brown shoots in the center and around the dead shoots are stripped greens ones coming up...........I am going to start watering every day as they probably love water. I need to call the cooperative extension and see if they will come out and look at it.

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Some perennials grow outwards in a crown type shape with new growth occurring on the outer edge of the plant but the center largely dead or inactive. That could be what's happening with your bamboo. I don't grow bamboo so I can't say for sure, but that's largely how it sounds. In the perennial plant world we fix that by digging up the plant in the early spring or fall and cutting out the dead section in the middle, divide the ring of live growth into manageable sections and replant those sections wherever we'd like them to be. From one initial plant purchase you can end up with quite a few plants in this manner.

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Or, it might be like this ornamental "grass" someone nearby planted next to a telephone pole many years ago.  It's a very large grass that grows like 10-12 ft tall.  It dies back every winter.  This year is the first year I have ever seen them cut back the ded foliage and I'm not sure how they did it.  It's a huge circle and there is no hand tool that I can think of that would reach to the middle of it, maybe a pole saw.  It probably takes a saw of some sort to cut it.  Anyways, It regrows every year from the base of the dead stuff.  It's kinda like my Mexican Petunias which do the same thing (also rather invasive btw, but I didn't know that when I planted it).  

However, I don't think my neighbor's bamboo dies in the winter.  If it does, it leafs back out on the stalks that are already there.  Don't know if different bamboo acts differently as far as dying back in winter though.