buddha belly bamboo

[redant]

I was down in the Ft. Lauderdale area last week and bumped into a beautiful nursery on Griffin rd, west of I95, east of the turnpike. In living color was the name and while the palm selection wasn't particularly great they did have some real cool things. In front of the nursery are two large rainbow Euc's, I have never seen them before other then pictures, they are stunning. Anyhow while wandering the nursery they had some buddha belly bamboo planted.

I'm not much of a bamboo guy but I really liked this stuff, really attractive, seems to be a clumper of not great height and should be easy to maintain. I had to buy two and give then a try.

I also found some bamboo ginger (don't know the true name). It's in the ginger family, bamboo'ish looking clumps, green on the tops of the leaves and maroon underneath. Really nice looking ginger.

So anyone have any experience with the bamboo, good bad or otherwise?

Heres a link to it at davesgarden

[junglegalfla]

You must have bought Bambusa vulgaris 'wamin' if it wasn't expected to get tall. Did it have the pronounced swollen culm? From what I understand, normal buddha belly will only swell if potted and stressed. This goes away one planted in the ground. The normal is also considered a timber bamboo with a pretty large spread. I saw a huge stand on a bamboo farm near here and it was breath taking.

LOL, just clicked your link. That answers my question  

I grow wamin, mine has only been in ground for a year, seems slower to get going than my others. I recently saw a stand of it and it also looked like it took a good amount of shade.

[metalfan]

I have it in a pot, its very nice.

[Eric in Orlando]

If it is B. vulgaris 'Wamin' then it is a good bamboo, only gets 10-15ft and keeps the swollen internodes. It takes to 27F before it freezes down, it is a good one for a smaller spot. There is also 'Wamin Striata' that has green canes striped with dark green.

B. ventricosa is the species that was the first called Budda's Belly. It is a giant, 50-60ft tall and makes a very wide and dense clump in a short time. It produces branches along the cilms all the way to the ground. It only gets the swollen internodes in a container. This one needs lots of room unless someone keeps up with pruning and controling it..

Interestingly our huge clump of B. ventricosa started flowering in early 2005 and it was totally dead by this past summer, what a job it was to remove it. I could find no reports of any other B. ventricosa flowering, ours was only about 20 years old. Figured it might have been stressed from the 3 hurricanes beating it in 2004.

[redant]

Unfortunately the nursery wasn't much for botanical names. The species I saw in the ground and was told is the same I bought. It was about 15 ft tall with only a couple of canes per clump. Some of the older canes had turned more of a bamboo   color, loosing the green but where so shiny they looked like a coat of polyurethane had been applied. The nodes where swollen and the canes had a very curvy growth, not the typical straight bamboo growth. The curvy growth was one of the features I liked the most. It did look much like the pictures in the davesgarden link.

[tank]

I have the dwarf form of B. ventricosa.  Apparently it can both decide not to be a dwarf, and as stated, not swell at the nodes.

Mine has remained dwarfed (~12ft).  About 75% of the canes have bellies.  I'll take a pic of mine if your interested.

I bought it locally and suspect it is from Kanapaha Gardens stock.

I try and neglect it as much as possible.

I also have the verigated B. ventricosa.  This has canes around 30ft+.

Both are clumpers and both have seen temps down to 20 F and have shown no damage.  Supposedly both of these can take temps down into the mid/upper teens (F).

[redant]

"I'll take a pic of mine if your interested."

Certainly would be, thanks.

[Really full garden]

The Wamin is also called Giant Buddas Belly.The South Florida Tropical Bamboo Society is a great source of info and nurseries.I am just getting interested in bamboos.I would go for the Wamin.There is also a variegated cultivar.

                                                                            Scott

[fiji jim]

We have some of these grown from seed and in pots at about 1 year old.

Has anyone else had experience growing bamboo from seed?

Jim

[Eric in Orlando]

Here are a couple clumps of B. vulgaris 'Wamin' at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Here is what a clump of bamboo looks like when it is just about done flowering, it is B. ventricosa;

here is the inflorescences

[osideterry]

Just a warning, Bambusa tuldoides is also called Buddha Belly. It looks nothing like wamin. It only gets swollen internodes when it is deprived of water and rootbound. If you treat it nicely it becomes a giant mess. It's the one you find at Home Depot as a small plant.

[Eric in Orlando]

Some have lumped B. ventricosa into B. tuldoides but GRIN still has them listed as seperate species;

http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/tax_search.pl

[redant]

(osideterry @ Nov. 14 2007,20:57)

QUOTE

Just a warning, Bambusa tuldoides is also called Buddha Belly. It looks nothing like wamin. It only gets swollen internodes when it is deprived of water and rootbound. If you treat it nicely it becomes a giant mess. It's the one you find at Home Depot as a small plant.

Well mines planted in a wet location, I'll see what it's behavior is. If it goes crazy my wifes going to kill me, she's not a big bamboo fan.

The one at the nursery looked much like the one in Animal kingdom only with more curves.

So when bamboo seeds it croaks?

[waykoolplantz]

we have both regular Wamin & varigated...as well as B ventricosa...which indeed is huge..& spreading

Wamin is to novice bamboo gardeners what "old man palm" is to novice palm collectors. ( not showing disrespect to either the gardeners or plants),either way its a great looking bamboo.

BTW while i have no trouble growing bamboo...my bro-in-law was having no success in his rocky soil till he applied manure as a top dressing

[Creekside]

One thing about Wamin, they really want to be in full sun, much more so than other tropical bamboos.   Eric, ventricosas have been flowering here and there, I have seen and heard of a few of them in the Sarasota area.   Flowering bamboos are interesting!  (Even if ventricosa monsters are especially gnarly...)

[John Case]

I have a 'wamin' in the ground this year and it has done well.

Rule of Bamboo:

Year 1 - It sleeps

Year 2 - It creeps

Year 3 - It leaps!

Good luck!

[Eric in Orlando]

Good to know Catherine. I wonder how old those clumps are. The one that flowered at Leu Gardens was planted in 1985 from a 15 gal. pot and came from a nursery over in Meritt Island.

We had an old clump of B. multiplex start flowering on one side years ago. We applied several bags of 50-0-0 and it quit and resumed growth. That was about 10 years ago and it hasn't tried to flower since. I also had a small plant of B. pachinensis flower and die. It was only about 6ft tall and had been in the ground about 3 years from a 5 gal. pot. Must have had weak genes.

[tank]

(redant @ Nov. 14 2007,15:45)

QUOTE

"I'll take a pic of mine if your interested."

Certainly would be, thanks.

Doug,

I haven't been able to post pictures.

If you're still interested, please PM me and I'll email them to you.

I would probably get the B. vulgaris, based on where you live and what you're looking for.  Even the dwarf form of B. ventricosa can get unruly in short order.

[Creekside]

I, also, had a B. multiplex Alphonse Karr flower and seed about 10-12 years ago.  The seeds all produced true to the original plant - Alphonse Karr 'Jade Green'.  The clump seeded again the following year but not nearly as prolifically, and is still alive, (all typical of multiplex.)

[ariscott]

Absolutely love bamboo. I don't know they die after flowering???? Never had that problem before. I have 6 different varieties, all bambusa. Would love to try dendrocalamus, but worried they might get too big. I have 5 acres, but still... I saw how massive they can be.

Regards, Ari

[Walter John]

(ariscott @ Nov. 21 2007,04:55)

QUOTE

Absolutely love bamboo. I don't know they die after flowering???? Never had that problem before. I have 6 different varieties, all bambusa. Would love to try dendrocalamus, but worried they might get too big. I have 5 acres, but still... I saw how massive they can be.

Regards, Ari

Hey Ari, what are the 6 species ?

[ariscott]

I have Bambusa lako, Bambusa oldhamii, Bambusa vulgaris "citatta", Bambusa textilis, Bambusa vulgaris "buddha's belly" and one more, not sure what it is, since it was given to us. They have been in the ground for a year now. They have taken off like crazy except for bambusa lako.

Come and have a look when you are in Darwin - just ignore the tall grasses all around them  

Regards, Ari