bamboo says: water!

I've noticed that recently I haven't done any posts about projects. No planting, building, even weeding. I thought about this for a moment, and realized that it's because I haven't done any of this. My gardening tasks for the past few weeks have been limited to pretty much a single activity: watering.

As with much of the country, it's been extra hot and dry in St. Louis for the past month or so. With that sort of weather, most of my potted plants need to be watered daily. The bamboo though -- which I have many pots of -- can tolerate watering every other day if needed.

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They would appreciate watering every day but can take a day of drought before they complain, and bamboo complains by rolling its leaves:

The leaf rolling is to reduce the amount of water loss through the leaves (transpiration), and it's a signal that I need to get the hose out there. It gives the plant a completely different look, as it exposes the lighter underside of each leaf, and gives the plant a more severe, spiky look:

Even the large-leafed bamboos will do this when stressed enough:

But a good soaking, and 10 minutes later things are back to normal:

Only 10 minutes? It takes me a lot longer than that to recover after spending any amount of time out here in the heat. Bamboo is amazing.


I'm keeping today's post brief because it's hot outside this morning (as usual) but cloudy, and I want to actually do some planting before the clouds clear or it rains. I'm being hopeful about the rain, as we've had not a drop here for the past couple of weeks at least. With a 50% chance today, I've got my fingers crossed.

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