DENDROCALAMUS GIGANTEUS

      Quail Gardens      15 year-old plant by Bob Dimattia in Vista

 

70' height, Full Sun, 32 degrees F Minimum, Clumper. Wa-bo, Wabo-myetsange, Dunkaloik.

 

    Largest diameter culms of any known bamboo - commonly a foot in diameter with 20" by 4" leaves in habitat!   On August 28, 2003 the bamboo institute attached to Yunnan Normal University in China announced they found a dendrocalamus giganteus measuring 46 meters (150') tall with a diameter of 36 cm. (14").  It's growing in a grove planted in southwestern China.

    Sections of the culms are used in some tropical countries for piping & buckets.  To grow plants that big requires lots of heat & moisture - more than we have in most S. California climates away from the coast.  The plants at Quail are spectacular!  But our plants in Tustin only achieved 2" in diameter with about 6 years of growth in the ground.  However, the very large leaves & spectacular fresh new growth make it a very nice plant regardless how large the culms get in diameter.  A few large plants have been grown up to the tops of the glass roofs in tropical greenhouses in Germany.  The new culms come up in September, grow free of foliage 10-20' high & then leaf out in all directions.  Large plants in Florida, 10' & taller during the 1989 & 1995 freezes were killed dead to the ground when the night-time temperature dropped to 27 degrees for one night, then grew back with new canes & foliage.  It grew well for Gary Stinson in Menifee, California which regularly gets down to freezing in the winter.  A few plants were imported from Taiwan into the U.S. by the ABS in 1981.  A 15 gallon plant we supplied to the ABS in '87 for their auction sold for $500.  A 7 gallon plant sold at the '88 auction for $650.  A 15 gallon pot sold at the '91 SCABS Sale for $300.  A 3 culm 4' 5 gallon pot sold at the Sept '91 NWABS Sale for $110. 2 10" pots about 3' tall sold for $95 each at the '95 SCABS fall sale.

 

DENDROCALAMUS GIGANTEUS VARIEGATUS

Shade/sun, 30 degrees F Minimum, Clumper.

        Beautiful leaf patterns.  We've not seen mature plants that  hold their variegation.  Gerald Bol grew some and sold them for large amounts of money, but we are unaware of any growing into mature plants with variegated leaves.  A 15 gallon plant sold at the spring 1991 Southern California Bamboo Sale for $300.  In the fall of 1991 Richard Neufield had a 5' high healthy but rather dried-out plant in  Oceanside, California.  Richard propagated the plant and an 8" pot 8' tall sold for $100 at the '95 SCABS fall sale.