Office Building in Glendale

Moso divisions were dug out of a nursery in Northern California at great expense and installed in the atrium-style 40' high lobby of a high-rise office building at 805 Brand in Glendale in June of 1987.  It was hand watered once a week until October of 1988.  At that time a hand valve-operated watering system was installed and used for 2 hours per day, resulting in so much water in the planters that the granite floor began to show water stains around the planters.  Around the end of November of 1988 the watering was cut to 10 minutes per day.  The canes were 18-25' high.  15 canes had a diameter of 1 1/2' to 2" and 16 canes had a diameter of 1/2" to 1".  But the plants were not pruned or watered properly and tenants in the building complained about their appearance. 

The building management hired me as a consultant to tell them what to do.  I found the plants healthy but in need of pruning and a more controlled watering system.  They followed my advice and in the spring of 1989 a lot of new shoots began to grow at the base of the plants.  The building manager had been holding back on taking her vacation time because of this growing crisis in their main lobby.  But when she saw the new growth she decided the problem was over, and went on a two-week vacation.  While she was on vacation the new shoots exploded upward with new growth.  But the maintenance crew had never seen anything like that, thought they were weeds and systematically cut them down as they appeared.

When the manager returned from vacation she decided the moso was too much of a problem and had it all dug out and thrown into a dump.  They then replaced the plants with Bambusa vulgaris vittata.