Phyllostachys aurea, more commonly known as the Golden Bamboo and less so as the Fishpole Bamboo is possibly the most popular and readily available Phyllostachys bamboo for sale in the UK. You're likely to see it in any garden centre and even DIY sheds tend to stock them in their outdoor plants and gardening section.
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| Phyllostachys aurea and their characteristic compressed lower nodes |
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| Phyllostachys aurea can be dense growing and have branches all the way down and through the entire length of the culms (good for screening). To appreciate it's nodes you may need to strip off the lower branches |
Most of the culms remain green for most of the time. Still a nice colour though but really it should be sold more with the common name Fishpole Bamboo rather than Golden Bamboo. Although admittedly the latter sounds more appealing than the former.
Saying that, there is actually a genuine golden form of the Golden Bamboo called Phyllostachys aurea 'Holochrysa' or it's synonym Phyllostachys aurea 'All Gold'
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| Phyllostachys aurea 'Holochrysa' - youngest culms start out green but can quickly turn bright/golden yellow. Unlike the other one... |
Well the green form is more vigorous, more rewarding, propagates easily, and grows much quicker. The golden form doesn't, it bulks up much slower...
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| Phyllostachys aurea 'Holochrysa' |
But if you really want a really golden, bright yellow culmed Golden Bamboo, it is out there, just look for the right name.
Mark :-)
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That means that it is easier to remain a clump and not spread away for Phyllostachys aurea 'Holochrysa'?
ReplyDeleteBamboos are beautiful plants but I´m a bit afraid of the running bamboos in small gardens.
Potentially yes Lisa. The Holochrysa you see in the pic has remained almost the same size as it was when planted out six years ago. I remove older culms as new ones are sent out and it only sends a few a year. In your location with a climate similar to ours it can potentially be well behaved :)
DeleteSo Holochrysa is not only a stronger yellow, it is also easier to manage? That's very handy to know -thank you! Does it have any downsides?
ReplyDeletePotentially yes Sarah. Downside is the slower growing nature of it but that's not so bad either, makes for a better behaved specimen bamboo :)
DeleteThey do look really cool and are perfect plants I would think for a garden to hide what you don't want to be seen yet to look great.
ReplyDeleteCher Sunray Gardens
Most bamboos make for a great screening plant Cher, for that all important privacy :)
DeleteWe got a clump of bamboo from a neighbor that is truly golden, but shall remain nameless...at least until someone knowlegable comes along to tell us what it is. In the meantime, we shall simply enjoy.
ReplyDeletePost a pic when you can Ricki, someone out there might be able to ID it :)
DeleteHello Mark and Gaz:
ReplyDeleteIn our gardening days we had something of a love hate relationship with bamboo finding it rather too much work to maintain in the way in which we wanted. However, we can appreciate them as a screen when they can be most effective.
Hi Lance, same here. There was a stage wherein we had too much of it to the point that they became a huge source of mess and debris. We had drastically reduced our collection, although we still have loads we don't have as much as we used to and find it's more manageable now :)
DeleteThe true golden variety is rather nice. I had P niger in the last house which I loved. It was supposed to be clump forming but after a couple of years invasive. The new shoots got thicker and thicker and more and more difficult to control.
ReplyDeleteP. nigra is a lovely bamboo Jessica. The marketing of Phyllostachys bamboo have been naughty and misleading in recent years, saying it is clumping when by nature they are not. Some however are more vigorous than others and of those that are not, their growth is so slow that they behave like a clumping a bamboo. For a truly clumping bamboo the best genus to go for is Fargesia :)
DeleteI've never seen such deep golden culms, extraordinary. I used to prune one of my P. niger clumps, but I left it for a couple of years and it became virtually impossible to get in to remove some of the culms to allow the others to thicken up. Still, it does make for a lovely effect if you don't need the screening.
ReplyDeleteThey do need regular pruning Janet to maintain the airy look/feel to them. Some of the ones we left for a year or two unchecked the job of regaining that look again became big. Was worth it though :)
DeleteI love bamboos, including (especially!) the running types. How I wish I had a bit more property where I could be able to grow some of them! For now I have to be content with one of the clumpers, Fargesia robusta. But it just isn't the same!
ReplyDeleteJohn B. a.k.a. DC Tropics
Phyllostachys is a great genus of bamboo isn't it John? Their culms make such a strong presence. Same here, if we had acres of land I could happily get into collecting them again!
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