PHYLLOSTACHYS BISSETTII

 

 
        20' height, Sun, -10 degrees F Minimum, Runner.  Sometimes called David Bisset Bamboo.  Native to China.   Resembles Phyllostacys aureosulcata without the yellow culm groove.  Vigorous plant usually valued for its hardiness.  The foliage will take -5 degrees F. with little or damage.  If the roots & rhizomes are heavily mulched they will survive very cold temperatures - we are interested in how it will do in Canada & Alaska. 
 
        In March of 1992 Richard Sturgill planted one in Ketchikan, Alaska.  We never heard how it did. 
 
        Dan Nielsen in New Berlin, New York has a minigrove in the ground which covers an area 10' by 4' & is heavily mulched with horse manure.  In January of 1980, when the plant had been in the ground for 4 years, the temperature went down to -25 for a week & then down to -50 degrees for several days!  There was a foot of snow on the ground. When spring arrived it sent up new shoots which during the summer got their normal 8-9' high & an inch thick, business as usual, as though nothing had happened! 
 
        David Andrews reports minor leaf damage at 0 degrees & minor rhizome damage at -8 degrees F.  Pryse Duerfeldt has a  plant in Neguanee, Michigan that gets -30 degrees F. every winter. 
 
        Carl Hensen in Aberdeen, Idaho has 8 varieties of hardy bamboo which have suffered -36 degrees F. & Bissettii is his favorite, only losing leaves in winter even without a mulch.
 
        Al Adelman in Westford, Mass reported that in winter of 2002  mature groves of Phyllostachys bissetii were killed to the ground.  The groves  were 24 feet tall - they regrew in 2003 to about 13 feet.   The lowest temp was about -8F with abundant snow cover.