I noticed it first thing on a Saturday morning—one of my prized running bamboo culms had started leaning at an odd angle, like it was tired. Then another. After five years of nurturing this grove, watching it grow from skinny rhizomes into a dense, towering privacy screen, seeing those culms start to topple felt like … Read more
Last spring, I watched my Phyllostachys aureosulcata grove turn a sickly pale yellow-green over the course of six weeks, and I nearly convinced myself it was dying. The older leaves at the base of each culm turned first—a uniform, washed-out yellow that looked nothing like the crisp variegation the variety was supposed to show. I’d … Read more
I still remember the morning I walked out to my bamboo grove and felt my stomach drop. What I thought were harmless little bumps on the culms were absolutely everywhere — and my prized Phyllostachys aureosulcata, the one I’d nursed from a small division for four years, was looking pale, stunted, and just… wrong. It … Read more
I still remember the morning I walked out to my bamboo grove and noticed something was terribly wrong. The leaves that had always been a deep, glossy green were pale, stippled, and lifeless — like someone had dusted them with ash overnight. I had no idea then that I was looking at a bamboo spider … Read more
I dug up my Phyllostachys aureosulcata last spring, moved it across the yard, and watched it turn completely yellow within two weeks. My first instinct was panic—I’d killed it. But I didn’t. After sitting with that yellowing bamboo for another four weeks, most of the color came back, new shoots appeared, and by midsummer it … Read more
I was staring at my potted Phyllostachys aurea last Tuesday when I noticed the first wave of yellowing leaves. My instinct was to panic and reach for fertilizer, but I stopped myself. This wasn’t the same yellowing I see in field-grown bamboo. The causes were completely different, and treating it like an in-ground problem would’ve … Read more