Fargesia dracocephala 'Rufa'

Rufa is currently the most available bamboo in the Maritime Provinces. It has been carried at Sobey's, Home Depot, MacCarthur's Nursery and many other nurseries over the past few years. Although the hardiest Fargesia species are nitida and murielae, Rufa is the easiest to find.

I have a few different Rufa plants in a few different locations. I'll update you on the progress of these plants over the past few years.

Rufa is the earliest shooting bamboo I have. It begins shooting in late April or early May and often begins breaking the soil level under the snow cover. It is a clumping bamboo and slowly spreads out over the years. It is one of the only bamboo in the north to shoot more than once in a growing season.

Fargesia rufa - Bamboo Select tissue culture plants
Tissue culture has enabled some bamboo to be propagated quickly. Usually bamboo is propagated through division and this is time consuming and labour intensive. Since many bamboo only flower every few decades or more, seedlings grown plants can be rare.

Generally, I have heard some negative feedback from tissue culture Fargesia plants. My tissue culture nitida and murielae have been slow to size up and show marginal hardiness so far. The rufa plants have been quite impressive.

If the bamboo are protected from winds, they may not defoliate over the winter. I have a few pictures below to highlight this point in Prince Edward Island (zone 5b).

Rufa A is in an exposed position. If there is not enough snow cover to insulate it, the wind and cold dessicate the leaves over the winter.
Summer 2011


Winter/Spring 2012



Rufas B and C are down in a small ravine and are more protected from the wind but also from the Sun. They are all tissue culture plants but B and C came through winter much greener.
Summer 2011


Winter 2011


Winter 2011


Spring 2012


Summer 2012

Garden Statues and Props

Garden statues and props often enhance settings but are quite tricky. Too many and the garden becomes tacky, none and the garden is not reaching its potential. I have a few different stone ornaments in my garden in Moncton. They are small in size and therefore fit the proper scale of my small garden. Larger gardens require larger ornaments or they often just get overlooked.

This was a setting I created in 2010


Here is the use of an asian inspired lantern.


In this shot you can see a small lantern near the pond and a stone bench to sit and watch the fish.



This isn't a permanent fixture but can often be found keeping cats away from the fish.


Kew Gardens had some mega sized props to balance its mega-sized setting.





My only larger ornament is the pergola. I built it at the cottage in PEI with the help of my Dad so that I could get married under it. After the wedding, I disassembled the pergola, brought it to my house in Moncton and re-assembled it in my yard. It provides some cover from the Sun, some vertical interest with the wisteria vine and a small sanctuary like feeling when laying in the hammock.



I'll need to invest in a nice sized ornament of some sort for the garden on the island.
TC

Fargesia denudata

I was lucky enough to go to Kew Gardens in the summer of 2009. I was just getting into bamboo at the time and I didn't really appreciate their bamboo specimens as much as I would today.
I still took some pictures and saw a few bamboo I knew I wanted to try. Fargesia denudata was a nice looking bamboo.






Imagine my surprise when I actually sourced one at a garden center off the highway in Nova Scotia. Bamboo are extremely rare on the East coast of Canada. Home Depot sold some Fargesia species (tissue culture) for a couple years and that's about it. The plant tag said zone 5 but I knew better. The books I had rated it hardy to -22 degrres Celsius or so. I knew it would probably defoliate in the winter.
Summer 2010
I really started to question the hardiness when I noticed leaves browning up shortly after temperatures just below zero. Considering its age and how little time it had to establish itself, I thought maybe those factors and the site location (fairly dry) may have contributed to its poor hardiness. Time will tell with bamboo.




Spring 2011



Obviously it was totally fried after the winter. I didn't have much hope, but it shot up new culms in the Spring and leafed out nicely. I would say a little smaller in size than the original planting. I thought that after a full season to get established, it may improve its hardiness.

Summer 2011



Winter 2011 - after temps of negative 17 degrees Celsius. Total culm death again. We will see what happens next Spring.
In general Fargesia species have done quite poorly so far. They are painfully slow to upsize and shoot very late in the season. EXCEPT for rufa. Fargesia rufa has done extremely well, holding up to temperatures beyond its hardiness rating.



Only time will tell if denudata, murielae or nitida will finally get going and upsize.

TC

Pseudosasa japonica

I guess the price was right. That's why I purchased a bamboo that was clearly not hardy in my zone. However I wanted to have bamboo that represented as many different genera as possible.

When the plant arrived in the Spring of 2010 it was not very impressive. I grew it in a pot and it sized up pretty well.

Mini Gardening

I have always liked the look of mosses, club mosses, liverworts, hornworts etc... Anything small, green and tuff as nails.
When it comes to identifying these things I have not a clue where to start. Well, I guess that's not true. My wife's uncle is actually a moss indentification expert in Ontario. I should probably send him a couple pics.

I really like the texture of different miniatures. They usually really display how many different shades of green there really are.

I started by getting this shallow terra cotta pot. They are terrible pots to have in Canada. The freeze and thaw cycles usually destroy them in a couple years. I simply peeled chunks of different miniatures from anywhere I could find them and then let them fill in the spaces.

Spring

Highlights of my small garden. Zone 4b

I thought I would just post a bunch of pictures of some plants and different views of my small garden in New Brunswick. The garden is not very old but it has come a long way in 3 years. It started like this.

Bamboo in Italy

I was lucky enough to spend a couple weeks in Italy this summer. We spent a week in a villa in a small town an hour from Florence. Bamboo was on my mind before I left because my plants were shooting but I had no expectations of finding bamboo in Italy.




On the country roads heading to the villa, I noticed a few stands and a couple small groves of bamboo in farmer's yards. None of the bamboo was overly huge but it did get my hopes up. I guess the thing to remember is that despite my addiction to the plant, I have never actually seen any mature Phyllostachys plants anywhere. It's funny how you can get so wrapped up in a group of plants based on descriptions in books (Hardy Bamboos - Paul Whittaker), websites (www.needmorebamboo.com) and blogs (It's Not Work It's Gardening).

Phyllostachys aureosulcata 'spectabilis'

Since I seem to be too busy to make any posts during the summer, I guess I can use my spare time in the winter to blog about the summer.

I guess I'll start with my most successful bamboo so far and probably my favorite. Phyllostachys aureosulcata 'spectabilis'.

Welcome back Todd!

I had good intentions of blogging frequently but I obviously failed miserably. Life is busy, and I guess I spend too much time in front of a computer at work. Anyway... I made it to the cottage this week for a night and I was able to check out a few of my bamboo.



Almost all my bamboo are covered in plastic. I was able to peek through the plastic and check out the leaves underneath. We have very little snow this year, so there has been no insulation value. Our lowest temperature so far was -15.5 degrees Celsius.



I have 1 Phyllostachys aureosulcata 'alata' that I planted two summers ago. It is my 'control' plant. I will never fertilize, water or protect it. It's only advantage is a windbreak. It is surrounded by spruce and white pine. This plant looks great so far. Keep in mind, February is always our coldest month but always has snow cover as well.










It has very little to no leaf burn at all but has not faced much i the way of cold temperatures.

My first bamboo.

My interest in gardening started in the summer of 2007.  We had just bought a house the previous fall and it was not landscaped.  In 2007 I planted a few shrubs in front of the house and a couple perennnials.  I mainly dreamt about my plans for the backyard in the summer of 2008.  I had always wanted a water feature and I had the intentions of building a pond.  That winter I bought some books on perennials and I was hooked.  I started noticing landscapes in a different way.  I noticed the colors, plants, textures, leaf sizes and shapes in a way I had never paid attention to before.

I was always on the lookout to identify plants I had seen in my books and I started looking for opportunities to visit gardens and parks.  In the summer of 2008 we visited the Island Preserve Company in New Glasgow PEI.  Adjacent to the restaurant and shop is the Garden of Hope, a 12 acre park with over 400 different plants.  When cruising through the trails a certain plant really caught my eye.  It was a short, shrubby plant in the heavy shade of spruce trees.  It looked like bamboo.  I searched the ground for some sort of identification but there was none.  So I searched the plant and I found a small tag.  I stole the tag. 

The tag said Fargesia murielae - el Summit Perennial Nursery.  This meant absolutely nothing to me at the time.  I did not recognize the genus or the nursery.  Weeks later I looked up the nursery online and found that it was in Mt. Uniake, Nova Scotia. 

In spring 2009 I planned a trip to el Summit perennial nursery.  When I arrived I noticed how different it was from any other nursery I had been to before.  It was just someone's house.  The owner Leo Smit met me in the driveway and toured me through his grounds.  There were small bunches of potted plants everywhere.  He seemed to know where things were but there was no signage.  You would be lost without his assistance.  I asked him about the bamboo and he found me a small 1 gallon specimen.  It looked pretty sad but I was not concerned.  I was so excited to find it that I really didn't pay much attention to his in ground specimen which I think was about 6 feet tall with a clump diameter of about 12 inches.

My invoice contained information about the plants I purchased that day but I really didn't pay much attention to it.  I went home, planted the bamboo and the obsession began.  I recently dug out that invoice.  It explains how he obtained the seed from Insigne Garden Design in 1999.  He had grown these plants from seed from a few plants that had flowered in Dartmouth in 1998, 1999.  The plants are expected to flower every 92 years.

Of course I did not take any pictures of the bamboo in the ground in 2009.  It didn't grow at all that summer.  I was quite concerned about it wintering in New Brunswick 4b.  Fargesia murielae is said to be hardy to zone 5.  The first winter I tried to protect it by placing a bale of hay near the plant and wrapping burlap around the hay and plant and attaching it to the fence behind it.  (It turns out this wasn't the best method.  It kept the insulation of the snowfall off the plant and really the bamboo was exposed to the coldest temperatures of the winter.)  The 2 pictures below show the plant in early Spring when temperatures were still below zero.  Notice the evergreen leaves are rolled to prevent dessication from cold winter winds.

Fargesia murielae (Spring 2010)

Fargesia murielae (Spring 2010)



Fargesia murielae (later that Spring)

 I was quite concerned when I saw the leaves rolled up but soon I read a book on bamboo that explained this was normal.  The book is called Hardy Bamboo by Paul Whittaker.  This book revealed that I had the potential to grow much larger running bamboo types on the East Coast and the obsession was intensified.
I ordered a bunch of different Phyllostachys species that summer and planted them.  This was their first winter and since our Spring has been so cold and wet, none of them have started shooting yet.  I can't wait to see if they upsized at all.

Speaking of upsizing.  The Fargesia murielae sent up 3 shoots in late summer of 2010.  A couple of them were taller than the rest and they did well over the winter.  I bent the culms down, covered the plant in plastic and the snow did the rest. 


Fargesia murielae (Summer 2010)



Fargesia murielae (Spring 2011 - notice the new branches forming from last year's shoots)

When I move, I will be bringing this plant with me.  I'm sure the transplant will slow down it's upsizing again but this was the first.  I also look forward to visiting the specimen at Island Preserve Company this summer and making notes about a more mature plant. 

My father in law and I have big bamboo plans for this summer in PEI.  If things go right, we may have the most complete collection of bamboo in all the East Coast of Canada.  I can't wait to write that Blog.

April 30th - It's Looking A Lot More Like Spring

I always start to wonder in April what my garden looked like the previous year at the same time.  I plan on documenting the growth every Sunday until June and that way I can look back next Spring to compare.

One of the first signs of Spring in my yard is the blooming of the marsh marigold (Caltha palustris).  I have two varieties.  The yellow variety is a native plant.  I dug up this plant a few years ago along a highway in Prince Edward Island.  The plants add so much color early in the year when things are so drab.  Especially against the dark backdrop of the pond water.

Caltha palustris

 The second marsh marigold I acquired was Caltha palustris 'alba'.  I found it at a small perennial nursery outside of Halifax.  I owe a lot to the El Summit perennial nursery because that is the location of my first ever bamboo purchase.  The 'alba' variety is shorter and has white flowers.  These plants are both bog plants but I just keep mine in pots and sit them in the pond. 

Caltha palustris 'alba'

I planted a few Primula in a wet spot in the yard last year.  They were planted really late and were in quite sad shape at the time of planting.  I was surprised to see a few of them flowering this Spring.  I thought I would have had to wait another year.  



Primula denticulata

Check out the flowering native maples.  How beautiful.  What a shame this is the first year I noticed them.  It's funny how we often spend time and money to source unique beautiful plants that have a characteristic that only lasts a short time (magnolia, japanese maples etc...) and we don't notice the native plants around us. (or ID them)



Acer sp.

  This is my first bamboo Fargesia murielae.  I bought it May 3rd 2009.  The culms shoot really late in the summer and the branching occurs in the second season.  The branching is beginning  now.

 

Fargesia murielae


A quick shot just showing the height of the various perennials.  

Fargesia rufa is finally shooting.  This is the earliest of all the bamboo to shoot.  I planted it late last summer and I don't expect much of an upsize this year.  However, there are two shoots that are equal to the existing shoots diameter.  I check on them every morning before work.



Fargesia rufa




Fargesia rufa shoots

  The lungwort also blooms really early.  It provides a lot of color at a time when things are so drab.

Pulmonaria sp.  'Mrs. Moon'

 The Northern Golden Forsythia always puts on a good show.   I think they are outgrowing this spot and I plan on digging them up this summer and moving them to PEI.

Forsythia

Last weekend I was trimming the ornamental grasses and I found this nest.  I thought because I disturbed the site the mother may abandon the nest.  I never see the bird around so I am unable to ID the eggs yet.  I took a close up of the eggs so if you know anything about bird eggs and could ID them, post it in the comments.

Pretty sweet set up

Grow Room update

The grow room has changed a lot since my first grow room blog.  I had to remove one of the greenhouses in there so I could make room for the taller plants and leave room for the lights. 

I started some bananas in March.  The package said Musa ensete which I later researched is actually two genus names.  I am unware of the species that I have but I now know it is in the Ensete genus not the Musa genus.  Two of the four seeds germinated in two weeks.  I kept them quite moist in a heated seed starter greenhouse.  I guess banana seeds can be quite random in their germination rates.  The seeds were larger than acorns and just as tough.  The pic below shows their current size. 

They really grow fast.  They grow a new leaf everyweek.  I will have to re-pot them soon.

They will be heading into the yard sometime after the long weekend in May.

 On Feb. 19 I blogged about the 4 types of castor beans that I purchased.  You can read it here -  http://gardenitis.blogspot.com/2011/02/why-not-start-some-seeds.html
They have really outgrown their space in the grow room.  They are competing with each other for light. 

 Like the bananas, they too will have to re-potted soon.  I will keep a couple in pots this summer but I plan to plant the rest out in May.

 At same time I started the banana seeds I started some spanish flag vine seeds (Ipomoea lobata).  It is an annual vine that germinated in about 1 week.  They have now been repotted and have started climbing.  I need to re-pot them again and give them more room to grow.  They will also go out in May.

Here is what the Fargesia nitida seedlings look like now.  They are growing, slowly.

Here is a Phyllostachys bissetii rhizome that decided it would shoot.  It was a piece or rhizome I bought last fall and it rested in a pot all winter in the basement.  I guess it finally decided it wanted to spend a little energy. 

Here a my two latest purchases.   
They are both elephant ears.  The green variety is Alocacia.  An upright leaf.
The second variety is Colocasia.  A black leaved cultivar with drooping leaves.  I planted one of each outside in the ground and I also planted one of each in a pot in the grow room.  I'm not sure how they will do in pots but time will tell.  I grew the green Colocasia a couple years ago and they grew really big.

Oops, couldn't resist.  What a beauty.