Growth spurt

Sometime last February I received a text message from my mother. She said she was very delightfully surprised when she went to check and clean the area around the row of Oldham bamboo (Bambusa oldhamii) seedlings^*. Almost all of them have suddenly produced shoots that are over 6 feet tall, some are even taller than the nearby concrete wall. And these shoots were not there yet when she last cleaned the area a few days before.

New shoots are now growing tall, some are even taller than the wall.

Soon this row of bamboos will provide a privacy screen from our neighbors across the street.

Their new trunks are still skinny but their sudden appearance is an indication that these seedlings^* are now adapted to their new environment. They need a lot more time to mature, their trunks will eventually reach a height of 40-60 feet with culms of 3-5 inches in diameter.

Eventually these bamboos will be taller than those giant heliconias in the background.

More signs of new growth.

I too was very glad to receive this pleasant news and could not wait to see the pictures. Early this month I got to see what the shoots look like and I am now even more determined to complete my green privacy screen project which has been in limbo due to the exorbitant cost of one small Oldham bamboo seedling^*.


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^* For lack of knowledge of the proper term, I call the young bamboos "seedlings" even though they were a product of vegetative propagation (either branch node cutting or air-layering).

From the outside looking in

"From the outside looking in, you can never understand it. From the inside looking out, you can never explain it."
unknown

If there is one very important feature that our farm lacks, that's privacy. Despite the high wall, neighbors on the other side of the street still have an unobstructed view of the goings-on inside the farm, as you can see from the picture below. This is because the ground on the other side of the street is elevated.

A man looking inside the farm while waiting for a public transportation to pass by.

There are a couple of viable options for this much sought for privacy:

• Make the concrete wall taller. This would work but may pose danger to life, limb or property especially if the wall is toppled down by a strong storm. The wall is already 8-foot tall.
• Plant more trees inside the property, parallel to the wall and the road. But it will take many years and maybe even decades before they grow past the height of the existing wall. They could also get knocked down by a powerful storm.

The second option is more feasible but instead of trees I chose bamboos because they are fast growers. My father computed that it would take around 150 clumps of bamboos, spaced 3 meters apart to provide a decent privacy screen.

First, I need a type of clumping bamboo that will grow tall, around 15 meters high. There are several options like the Giant Bamboo (Dendrocalamus asper), Java Black Bamboo (Gigantochloa atroviolacea), Columbian Thorny Bamboo (Guadua angustifolia [technically not a pure clumper]), etc. After studying all the options I chose Oldham Bamboo (Bambusa oldhamii) because of its erect culms and short branches, it looks neat, dignified and beautiful.

Oldham Bamboo seedlings purchased from the bamboo store.

Next, I need to find a reputable plant store that knows what it sells or else I might end up with the wrong plant again. The stores my parents inquired at didn't even know what "Oldham Bamboo" is. Finally I found a store that specializes in bamboos only and they have Oldham! All their plants are labeled to avoid confusion. You can even inspect the mother plants if you go to their farm. I suspect their plants would be expensive since they have a decent website, an office and a nursery in Makati, the country's premier business district.

My mother called their office and talked to the manager. For some reason she was told of the wrong price. Based on this incorrect information I computed the total amount needed for 150 seedlings and then funded this project. With my go-signal, my mother called the store to confirm an order of 150 seedlings of Oldham Bamboo.

A few days before the set pick-up date, we were informed that they gave us the wrong price and that the actual price was actually 60% more. Now this is a possible deal breaker. The total price went up to ₱60,000.00 (US$1,430.00)¹, way above the initial total amount. Then another surprise - currently they only have 20 seedlings of the bamboos we ordered. What the heck?!!

Columbian Thorny Bamboo (Guadua angustifolia) seedlings.

Anyway, since we can no longer afford to pay for the 150 seedlings and since they don't have that many either, we took the 20 they have, bought a couple of some other bamboo species and called it a day.

Just another quirky adventure on our quest for a little privacy.


P.S.:
I did not mention the name of the store since it may look like an endorsement. But if you need to know, just send an e-mail and I will gladly share their info.

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¹ Exchange rate: US$1.00 : PH₱42.00

Black beauty

"Master said, God had given men reason, by which they could find out things for themselves..."
"Black Beauty"
by Anna Sewell

From red stem to black stem.

Admittedly, my knowledge of plants and their behaviors were very limited when we started collecting for the garden project. As I began to research on what to get, that's the only time I learned more about the different types of bamboos including those with black colored culms (stems).

From what I've seen in the internet, there are only a few species of what is called a "black bamboo", namely Phyllostachys nigra, Gigantochloa atroviolacea and Bambusa lako. Please let me know if there are others. Of the three, P. nigra is what I prefer most. But because it's a running type bamboo I thought best not to deal with the hassles and headaches of controlling its runaway shoots.

I don't know what Black Bamboos are available in the market in our corner of the world, so in 2009, when I asked Mom to buy some Black Bamboos I specifically said to look for those with a clumping behavior. When I saw pictures of the young bamboos my mother bought, their culms exhibited a deep black coloration, I thought we had it. But as the bamboos grew and matured, their black color seemed to be fading also. Have we been duped again?

Some of the supposedly "Black Bamboos" with varying culm shades from green to black.

Turning to the internet again I read that the culms of both Gigantochloa atroviolacea and Bambusa lako start out green and as they age they slowly turn to black, or at least dark to almost black. I have no idea what species of bamboos we got because they were bought from a garden store where the retailers are not familiar with the botanical names of the plants they sell.

The row of supposedly "Black Bamboos" greet guests as they approach the upper garden .

I'm a very skeptical person so I've lowered my expectation to the point that I believe these are not true Black Bamboos. Maybe these are hybrids? Black Bamboos or not these living things deserve a place under the sun, so even if I'm a bit disappointed, they are staying in their current location to live their long lives to the fullest.