Collecting bamboo and look what I found!

I was collecting some tall black bamboo from a guy giving it away on craigslist-but I had to do all the work,as I'm starting a bamboo forest in my back yard to accent my new bonsai benches. Then I found this and he said I could take whatever I wanted- It was a pain to dig out of solid clay but man was it worth it. It has pretty good aged look to it. It goes all the way around but I didn't take any pics. It was in poor soil so I'm just let it be for a while till let get some strength, but I'm pretty excited about this guy. It looks like two fuzed into one as the back looks like one tree and for now I have no idea the ID either

The top part gonna need to be cut off but at this point I just want to leave it alone for now

Careful with that bamboo. It can take over your yard and your neighbors will NOT be happy if it gets into theirs.

Bamboo is NOT a plant to grow willy-nilly. In pots, OK. Free and in the yard -- NO WAY.

it's growing in a heavy duty suspended planter(10'Lx3'Hx4'W) about 6" off the ground-trust me I know the issues with bamboo

Hi,
I too would love to know what species you have there, looks great with very nice potential for carved/hollowed trunk !!!

There is another part of the back that is rotten and needs to be carved out-so this will have some pretty impressive trunk.

Looks like an eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) to me...

giga wrote:it's growing in a heavy duty suspended planter(10'Lx3'Hx4'W) about 6" off the ground-trust me I know the issues with bamboo

That ought to do it. <g>

Ooh I can't count the times I spent half of my summer doing chores for my old aunt when I was young cursing and hissing to vile mother nature for inventing a plant that looked so lovely and is SUCH a pain to have in the garden
You can't contain it, those sharp roots go through everything, even a little patch of tiles I embedded in concrete was no match to the destructive vigour of our green friend. Don't ever think you can contain it by anything else than a good container, plastic I'm afraid be it mesh, thick foil or even a bucket is not a good deterrent for this one. An ax just bounces right off it and when you try sawing it be prepared to have itchy and painful barely visible splinters in your hands that keep you amused for weeks. And you need to stay on top of it because Bamboo loves growing, spreading underground and popping up wherever you don't want it and the only way to contain it in open ground when it's vigorous is to dig a ring around it every few years again and removing all the shoots and roots underground till a reasonable depth. And even then you'll see it pop up wherever you don't want to see it pop up.

Bamboo is a lovely plant and I too always thought of having a nice bush of it in the garden, but I'm glad nature taught me about her little tricks before I put one in the ground in my own garden. The upside is that you'll never run out of bamboo sticks, and those can be quite handy to have lying around if you're creative and gardening.

I think if it was a redbud, it would have already had bud break in Virginia... How much of that monster was below the soil line? I think to ID you will just need to be patient for leaves to appear...

There are a couple buds breaking right now but it was in bad shape when I got it so I'll post an update when they open. Yeah I don't think its a red bud either. There was 4-5 roots as thick as the tree, I was dripping with sweat geting this guy out of a solid clay soil.

rockm wrote:Looks like an eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) to me...

Right now, without much to go on, I would say Ligustrum lucidum.

Bonsai Kas wrote:Ooh I can't count the times I spent half of my summer doing chores for my old aunt when I was young cursing and hissing to vile mother nature for inventing a plant that looked so lovely and is SUCH a pain to have in the garden
You can't contain it, those sharp roots go through everything, even a little patch of tiles I embedded in concrete was no match to the destructive vigour of our green friend. Don't ever think you can contain it by anything else than a good container, plastic I'm afraid be it mesh, thick foil or even a bucket is not a good deterrent for this one. An ax just bounces right off it and when you try sawing it be prepared to have itchy and painful barely visible splinters in your hands that keep you amused for weeks. And you need to stay on top of it because Bamboo loves growing, spreading underground and popping up wherever you don't want it and the only way to contain it in open ground when it's vigorous is to dig a ring around it every few years again and removing all the shoots and roots underground till a reasonable depth. And even then you'll see it pop up wherever you don't want to see it pop up.

Bamboo is a lovely plant and I too always thought of having a nice bush of it in the garden, but I'm glad nature taught me about her little tricks before I put one in the ground in my own garden. The upside is that you'll never run out of bamboo sticks, and those can be quite handy to have lying around if you're creative and gardening.

Really? You think ALL bamboo runs? There are two types of bamboo...running and clumping. Just plant a clumper and you will have the the beauty of bamboo without the problem.

I'm in zone 5b, almost 6a. The running bamboos are not as vigorous here as they are in zones 7 and warmer. I can see why people in Hawaii and Florida go into a panic at the mention of the name bamboo. I ave 9 cultivars that are fully winter hardy, my oldest bed was planted 30 years ago. It is wonderful, but high maintenance. 8 millimeter or thicker cross linked polyethylene, 36 inches deep willwork.

twice a year I patrol for escaped rhizomes, herbicide is use full for hard to kill out of bound rhizomes. After 30 years I won't live anywhere without it. Good eating too.:

Heres some new leaves almost looks like a maple to me? Not many new buds/braches have popped so I hope this guy does ok

It looks like a Red Maple tree, Acer rubrum. They are pretty hard to kill.

Yep, that's Acer rubrum.

yeah but all the growth thats comming up on this guy is what's in the picture and it a big tree and it look like it has scale but am not sure. If you look at the picture you can see little black bumbs and I'm not sure if thats scale or what?

It seems unlikely that it would be scale... they would want the new growth and likely not red maple... Have you tried 'squishing' them with your fingers or brushing what ever it is off with a brush?

Maybe I'm missing something.... I don't see anything out of the ordinary.

I'll try and take a close up and they do come off but they don't squish or anything they just come off

I have a couple younger acer rubrum and they are quite tough. On was literally ripped out of the ground with almost no root and thrown into a brush pile, it started growing so i decided to throw it into a pot and it is growing fine now. Give it time more buds will come over the next couple seasons. I agree that it is probably not scale, use an old toothbrush and gently get them off.

Todd

good to know -this is my first maple which is pretty cool, but from what I heard this guy is a little tough as bonsai but who doesn't love a good chalenge!

The trunk seems to be a good size which is good because supposedly leaf size can be an issue. The thread by Arthur Joura just had a red maple added to it which he tells a bit about.

Todd

These things do quite well here in Southeastern Virginia.
On the plus side, leaf reduction is impressive, they put on wood at a decent rate and I've seen that some pretty big pruning wounds inflicted on them during initial styling work, will heal well and callous over quite rapidly. And, like I said earlier....
"They are pretty hard to kill"
Non-fussy, robust trees to work with as material when you're starting out in bonsai, are really nice qualities to have!
-
On the negative side, I've noted that Acer rubrum can get away from you really fast when developing ramification and finer structure. When kept healthy and well maintained, they want to really grow fast! Long internodes, course growth and some pretty big leaves are the consequences you will definitely pay with this species, if you neglect them during the growing season and don't stay on top of regular grooming chores....

My guess would be Norway maple. Very common urban street tree here. The sap of Norway maple is milky white, later this spring or early summer, when you have more leaves, break one off and check the color of the sap. Red maple and sugar maple have clear sap.