beautiful bamboo?
To those of us who are obsessed with growing bamboo in our gardens, there's nothing like a thick, beautiful bamboo culm.
Currently the 'Spectabilis' bamboo is the most eye-catching in my yard, with its golden culms striped green. (Phyllostachys aureosulcata 'Spectabilis' that is.)
So colorful, so upright:
Plus there are so many of them:
Just lovely!
A respectable small grove, so bright, so pristine...
Ack! What happened?
Deer happened. These culms are just the right size for a good antler rubbing.
It's also a territorial marking thing.
At least they've been considerate and rubbed primarily the "backs" of the culms -- you can't see them from the garden:
I should be happy that this is the extent of the deer damage on my bamboos. They could develop a taste for the leaves or worse yet, the shoots. Now that would be frustrating.
I'll count myself lucky then, and enjoy the view!
(The thickest culm in this grove is about 1.25" (3cm) in diameter, in case you were wondering.)
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Beautiful Spectabilis Alan! For several years, I had racoons that loved eating shoots of phyllostachys vivax. They not only dined on the ground but climbed neighboring culms and munched the growing tips from the tops of culms that were already 10 feet up. That particular group of varmits seems to have mooved on. Hey, Bamboos will be starting to shoot again soon! Hooray!
These are beautiful and they've begun to form a nice open stand. Really lovely to look at.
Hey Alan,
I know you've mentioned using Milorganite in the past, and that is supposedly a deer deterrent. You may want to try tossing a small handful on the bamboo every 3 weeks or so from mid October through mid December. Bamboo's looking awesome! Spectabilis is hard to beat! -jeremy
Jeremy: I can't see how even the strongest deterrent would keep a deer from antler rubbing. Those deterrents are created to keep deer from eating -- the walk up, rub my antlers, walk away cycle I believe has no cure other than a tall fence.