bamboo - is it going to die now?

[stripee]

I noticed a large clump of bamboo has gone brown and has flower heads on every stem.(they look like grass heads)..is this the end? Lower down the stem there is still green, but there are no new spikes coming up. I remember hearing something about bamboo dying once it does this? Anybody know. Thanks

[Seajay]

Off hand I don't know Stripee. Do you know the botanical name? I do have an extensive library and may be able to help with a little research.

Colin

[stripee]

Thank you SeajayI've just had a look in some books but can't find it - I planted it about 15 or so years ago. I'll have to take a photo in the morning. It's not the large leafed one, it's less prolific with smaller leaves and stems, but is now a large compact clump.

[aeshna5]

At least some species of bamboo are monocarpic, which basically means once they've flowered they die! I suggest you cut away all the brown growth as this will not come back + leave any green shoots as these should grow on.

[GerryNick2]

This is a common problem with a number of bamboos, some of the the yellow stemmed varieties will often give up the ghost for no apparent reason after several years.

Best thing to do is to cut it down to the ground now and wait until May to see if new shoots are generated, if no new shoots it is time to dig it up and replace it.

Gerry

[mrs fish]

Has anyone ever tried growing bamboo from seed?

To stop it from dying after flowering you could try cutting the flowerheads off as soon as they appear

[stripee]

Here are some photos of it....thanks for all advice. Every stem has a seed tassle on it, I don't know when these came, perhaps the end of last year, and I didn't notice them. I bought it from Blooms, Bressingham Gardens, and I just had a look on their web site, but can't find it. It is a fairly common one I think, non invasive, but there are several different Latin names for bamboo so I've found it hard to find the species. Looks like it will need cutting down!