Bamboo article

[needmore]

The local paper ran this story last Saturday but has not posted it on-line so here is the text - I have not yet seen the article but my wife says it had color pictures of a buddha and Viridis culms, of me in front of an Atrovaginata grove, a closeup of a HT Shiroshima leaf and a b&w photo of one of the Sasa's.

Brad Salmon?s great passion is bamboo. His five acres of Brown County land have been impressively landscaped with plantings of different species of bamboos. Groves of the plant grow lushly along his gravel driveway, and his house is almost completely hidden by jungle-like stands of mixed bamboos, with tropical banana trees and red castor oil bean plants added for good measure.

?I just love bamboo,? he said seriously. ?I love the way it looks.?

Many people might be surprised to find that bamboo will grow in Indiana at all, since it?s commonly associated with the tropics. In fact, Brad originally ?discovered? bamboo in Hawaii while he was living there..

?Hiking through the big, tall bamboo groves there, in Hawaii, I really gained an appreciation for it,? he explained. ?I never dreamed you could grow it in Indiana. But there are over 1200 different species of bamboo. Most of them won?t tolerate our winters. But I have about 150 species in the ground here.?

The American Bamboo Society maintains a database of all the different species, and lists their climate tolerances. But Brad has found that these listings are largely other people?s estimates, not based on their own experiences.

?I perform field trials to see what they?re capable of, and I?m finding things that are surprising,? he said. ?Some species are hardier than they?re supposed to be, while others are not.? Surprisingly, he has found that exotic bamboo species are more often killed by the heat of Indiana summers than by the winter cold of our area.

?There is a native bamboo that grows in the woods in southern Indiana,? he pointed out. ?It?s hardy as can be; it hasn?t yet died back due to cold temperatures. But it also can be extremely ugly if not well maintained.?

Brad?s 150 species of bamboos run the full range of sizes and shapes. The tall ?timber? varieties will form forest-like groves between 20 and 30 feet high; the ?shrub? forms are mid-sized, and dwarf varieties grow no more than knee-high. The size of individual leaves can range from dainty to massive, and coloration can range from deep greens to brightly variegated forms.

Bamboo importation is generally banned by the USDA except through a complex process of official permits followed by a one-year quarantine in a licensed greenhouse. Brad has gladly jumped through these hoops to import new varieties of bamboo.

?I?ve obtained every species in the US that?s worth growing, and I?ve brought a few new species in from Europe,? he said with pride.

Bamboo is not particularly difficult to grow, assuming that you have a hardy variety. They are heavy feeders and enjoy composted manure. The only real problem Brad has had is with voles, which view his protective mulch as ?vole heaven.? He has taken to not applying winter mulch unless single-digit temperatures are imminent.
Bamboo has three types of growth habit: the invasive ?running? varieties; clumping varieties, which form dense clumps without running; and ?running clumpers,? which combine those two traits.

Some bamboo species die to the ground each winter while others stay green for years. Brad doesn?t mind the ones that experience winter-kill. ?I treat them as herbaceous perennials,? he pointed out. ?I clear them out once a year.?

When he?s not commuting to his regular job, Brad runs the Needmore Bamboo Company as a home business. He always asks his customers questions in order to pinpoint the varieties that will be best for them. First, he asks whether they want the bamboo to be a privacy screen.

?If so, only 4 to 6 varieties will be reliably hardy around here,? he tells them.

If they want the bamboo to be a garden plant and not a screen, he asks whether they prefer ground-cover size, or shrub-size. Next, he asks about the site conditions (soil and light), and last, he asks what type of foliage they prefer. This allows him to suggest a number of species that all reflect the desired traits.

Brad wants to stress three important things.

?The plant called ?lucky bamboo? is actually a dracaena, NOT a bamboo,? he pointed out. ?I get calls from people who want to buy big ones, twisted around, for vases. But it?s NOT bamboo.

?Second, there?s a plant that grows wild around here that the locals call bamboo, but it?s polygonum cuspidatum, and has spade-shaped leaves and white flowers. It?s way more invasive than bamboo and way harder to control.

?Lastly, if you understand bamboo?s growth cycle, it?s easier to control.? Bamboo spreads through rhizomes that run just beneath the surface of the soil. These rhizomes have buds that can either turn into new canes or additional rhizomes, depending on the plant?s needs. Invasive bamboos can be controlled by planting in raised beds or mounds. New rhizomes will erupt around the perimeter of the mound and will stick out, groping for new soil, so it?s simple to spot them and snip them off, Brad said.

?Mentally picture where you want your grove to stop, then take a spade and sever the underground rhizomes all around the perimeter of the clump,? advised Brad. ?The rhizomes can?t live if they are severed from the top growth. I tell people, ?Prune, then patrol.? I recommend they cut around the edge with a spade in August, September and October, and if you want to be really, really safe, do it again in April.?

Brad sees many happy years in store, cultivating his bamboo.

?This is really a passion,? he finished, gazing up at the tall bamboo groves swaying in the breeze above him.

For more information, contact the Needmore Bamboo Company at 988-6896 The American Bamboo Society?s web site is <http://www.americanbamboo.org/> here is a great bamboo website that was created by and is maintained by volunteers, now endorsed by the American Bamboo Society ? it has the largest bamboo photo database on the internet and great discussion forum by http://bambooweb.info/

[BruceLofland]

Awesome article!

[bambooweb]

Nice article. Good to see something positive on bamboo.
Keep getting the word out.

Bill

[Oregonbamboo]

Well done Brad!

[rfgpitt]

Nice job!
Cheap marketing too
Seriously though, did you approach them or did they ask for info?

[Iowaboo]

Very indepth. Ok, so to the paragraph.............

I also have rare bamboo. This bamboo here, under lock and key, is called Phyllostachys parvifolia. It may become the biggest bamboo we can grow in Indiana! I have to keep it locked up because there are boopirates in this region. Some pirates have been known to come as far away as pennsylvania, new jersey, wisconsin, iowa, and various other states. They are all after this bamboo species. Let's move on to my other bamboo.

[Steve in France]

Well done , keep going , perhaps I can see it all next Spring fingers crossed.
Later
Steve

[needmore]

Nice job!
Cheap marketing too
Seriously though, did you approach them or did they ask for info?

The reporter is a friend of my neighbor and she called to see if I would be willing to do an article. The article was for the 'Home' section and she said the emphasis needed to be on home gardening rather than on the business aspect. I told her that it was fine with me if she did not even mention the business aspect as my love of bamboo is from a gardening standpoint not commercial and my goal would be to address 3 items - lucky bamboo, the p. cuspidatum and rhizome control. I'm pleased with the outcome in that regard.

Now I'm getting lots of phone calls while I'm not in Indiana to deal with them and I had actually closed the nursey for the year on 8/15 Anybody in this area want to deal with an order for 70 field divisions for a customer?

[foxd]

Now I'm getting lots of phone calls while I'm not in Indiana to deal with them and I had actually closed the nursey for the year on 8/15 Anybody in this area want to deal with an order for 70 field divisions for a customer?

What species of field division? I could probably spare that much Yellow Groove.

[CadyG]

Good artlcle! It's always a thrill to see bamboo featured in the media...accurately. Excellent job, Brad.

I LOVED the emphatic and definitive statement about "Lucky Bamboo." All of us bambooseros/seras should take a solemn oath that if any of us is ever interviewed about our bamboo, we absolutely must make a similar statement about LB. Consider it part of the 'boo missionary work.

But I'm a little disappointed that the reporter didn't do anything with the obvious play on words that "Needmore" offers... I mean, come on! All us bamboo lovers Need More Bamboo!

[serenityinbamboo]

Great article Brad! You are kinda like the Johnny Appleseed of Bamboo for Indiana and beyond..............

[CadyG]

More like a Johnny Bamboo Rhizome Division!