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Tuesday, February 4, 2014

All Better Now?

Well, it seems all of my worry about the bamboo leaves all dying or even having the culms die was completely unfounded.


Everything is fine now! No rolled leaves, no dry, papery look. Maybe the color is off a bit, but that's to be expected. Glad to see the plants are all better now... or are they?


***


Unfortunately, they're not. Sure, they look fine now, but that's only because of the rain.


Bamboo leaves have the ability to absorb moisture even when dead. I've seen cut canes with leaves still intact rehydrate in the rain and look freshly cut, even after several days of drying summertime weather.

So these plants are all fooling me right now.


Most of these leaves are dead. Especially the ones that have a yellowish tint to them.

Let's stay positive... I'm really enjoying the mix of colors right now:


That smaller light-colored bamboo in the middle (Phllostachys viridis) looked like this a few days ago:


Even the large-leaved varieties drink up the moisture and look healthy again:



I have to remind myself that this is a short-lived phenomenon, that the leaves will get crispy again after the rain dries off.

For the meantime though...


...I'll focus on the rain, and be thankful for its temporary revitalization of my plants.

.

4 comments:

  1. Wow, I didn't know bamboo leaves did that. Are you sure they can't come back from dead? I've seen it plenty of times in horror movies, LOL.

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  2. Amazing, I had no idea! I'll be curious to see the final results.

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  3. They might start falling off even if they are fully hydrated. Here, they had no chance of drying out, and yet all of them fell of, looking strangely dark - olive green colored. Enjoy while it lasts :)

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