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Thursday, December 9, 2010

Forgotten, the second

The other day I wrote about my forgotten and frozen jasmine. At the same time I noticed the jasmine was still outside, I turned to the right and noticed that I had a large potted bamboo still unprotected:


I was supposed to have included this plant with the other bamboos that I laid down on the ground and covered over with plastic, but somehow I completely forgot it -- even though I look at it every day as I go into the garage.


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I definitely want to give this plant (Bashania fargesii) protection again this year, as it's such a nice bamboo:


I also want to see how it will size up in the spring. I got it in November 2008, and it looked like this:


After spending that winter in the ground (protected under an overturned pot), it produced some nice new growth and looked like this:


Last year it spent the winter in the greenhouse, and sized up quite a bit this spring:


As you can see from the progression of size increases, I'm excited about next year. Since it's marginally cold-hardy here, I need to protect it though, so what to do? I certainly wasn't going to pull up the plastic from the horizontal plants, as that was a lot of work:


There's no room left in the greenhouse either, and this plant is too tall to fit in there anyway.

I'm thinking that under the deck is the only possible spot for it:


I don't relish the thought of digging right now, but I'm pretty sure I can bury the pot here:


After thinking about it a little more, I realized that I had no other options, so dug a big hole and dropped the plant into it:



It looks pretty nice there!

Next I just need to wrap it in plastic for wind protection:


It won't get any sunlight here so no solar heat will be trapped by the plastic, but it should be warmer right next to the house. I think this is a pretty well-protected spot, and the plant should be fine here.

There's nothing more I can do now except wait for spring and hope the winter isn't too fiercely cold. That's actually a pretty nice feeling.

(I took one last look around and there were no more bamboo pots hiding anywhere.)

3 comments:

  1. With a nice spot like that next to the house, you could plastic that whole area in, and have room for LOTS more plants under there!

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  2. Gene -- I've thought about that, but there are perennials that grow there (in front of where I've dug) including some ferns and I don't know what putting heavy pots on them all winter will do. Plus one of them is dicentra which is my first perennial to emerge, usually in February.
    .
    I'm still thinking about it for next year though.

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  3. Very nice looking bamboo. I've never seen one in person but may look for one for my in-laws. I love the lush leaves.

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