Green shoots of recovery
 

After three unusually hard winters in a row some semi-tropical plants in the garden have suffered badly. The [I]Agave americana[/I], for instance is looking very sick but might survive. For something which is native to Mexico, it is actually doing remarkably well to live outdoors all year round up here in the sub-arctic. I'm hoping my pomegranate bushes are still alive. It is hard to tell, but they are not obviously dead.

The early sprouting bamboos, i.e, the [I]Fargesia[/I] species, have definitely decided it is spring. The [I]F. robusta[/I] has many vigorous new shoots and the [I]F. mureliae[/I] are doing nicely. The [I]Phyllostachys[/I] bamboos should start showing signs of new culms over the next six weeks or so.

I thought you might like to know that ...

Paul

Sex!
 

[QUOTE=xilman;255083]After three unusually hard winters in a row some semi-tropical plants in the garden have suffered badly. The [I]Agave americana[/I], for instance is looking very sick but might survive.[/QUOTE]Actually, it died. However, the pup in the same pot seemed to come through unscathed.

The real news, though, is that the [I]Pleioblastus variegatus[/I] has burst into flower in the last few days. For the first time in its life it gets to have sex, which I guess makes it a happy bamboo. Explicit full-frontal pictures of its genitals may be posted later, unless Mike decides that such things are not sufficiently family friendly.

Unfortunately, it may die afterwards but I'll try to collect seed if any is produced and not eaten first by the local wildlife.


Paul

[QUOTE=xilman;258770]Actually, it died. However, the pup in the same pot seemed to come through unscathed.

The real news, though, is that the [I]Pleioblastus variegatus[/I] has burst into flower in the last few days. For the first time in its life it gets to have sex, which I guess makes it a happy bamboo. Pornographic pictures of its genitals may be posted later, unless Mike decides that such things are not sufficiently family-friendly.

Unfortunately, it may die afterwards but I'll try to collect seed if any is produced and not eaten first by the local wildlife.

Paul[/QUOTE]Hmm, it may in fact be a [I]P. shibuyanus[/I] after I conducted a Google search to see if others have reported any recent flowering of the Pleioblastus genus. It can be quite difficult to distinguish between different bamboo species at times and my memory of which specimen was planted in which location could well be faulty. I'll see if the original label is still on the plant. If not, more careful investigation is indicated.

Paul

[QUOTE=xilman;255083]The [I]Agave americana[/I], for instance is looking very sick but might survive.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=xilman;258770]Actually, it died.[/QUOTE]Did you allow it to "serve a greater good"? [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave#Uses[/url]

Since agave appears only in certain climes, its paraphyllaticity
(in and above its contabulatory monophyllatic natural relatives)
requires that its inprovatization never be replanted (IIRC).

So its preferred interservilaticuse should probably be left to
the choice of its owner.

[url]http://www.aerostich.com/bamboo-charcoal-socks.html[/url]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;292206][url]http://www.aerostich.com/bamboo-charcoal-socks.html[/url][/QUOTE]The bamboo socks are mentioned[URL="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17568088"] here[/URL] along with many other uses.

The quote I particularly like is [i]"You can see the little holes where the bamboo has been planted. At this moment the bamboo is like the young girl with the pimples that has not overcome puberty,"[/i] It's the first time I've ever come across the words "bamboo" and "puberty" in the same sentence!

I'm going to have to do something about the accumulated canes that have built up here over the past few years. Perhaps the local [URL="http://uk.freecycle.org/"]freecycle[/URL] group can help out. They've supplied and taken a remarkably wide variety of (to the suppliers) junk since I joined in.

Paul

At one of the Scout camps we visited they had a gigantic pile of ten foot long bamboo poles. Each pole was four to six inched in diameter.

With the trend towards "[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leave_No_Trace"]Leave No Trace[/URL]" it is becoming increasingly difficult to find wood to build catapults, towers, monkey bridges and other [URL="http://www.buckskin.org/resources/Outdoor/Pioneering.htm"]pioneering projects[/URL]. The bamboo poles are a really good alternative. Plus, they weigh a lot less.

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;295291]At one of the Scout camps we visited they had a gigantic pile of ten foot long bamboo poles. Each pole was four to six inched in diameter[/QUOTE]Those will be tropical bamboos. Up here in the sub-arctic bamboos rarely reach even two inches in diameter. Ten feet n length is no problem.

My collection, which must amount to a cubic metre in total, have sub-centimetre diameter canes in the main. They still make perfectly adequate bean poles and, presumably, firewood. It seems a shame to put them to the latter use.

Perhaps I could put them through the shredder in front of my friends and then make terribly trendy paper from the fibres and sell it to the terribly trendy bleeding hearts and artists.

[url]http://crackberry.com/check-out-literati-bamboo-case-blackberry-playbook[/url]

[url]http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/07/going-green-with-impeccas-hand-carved-bamboo-keyboard-and-mouse/[/url]