Back in 2008 I paid a visit to Chuck Theroux in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.  He runs Bountiful Earth and has the largest collection of bamboo in the upper half of the state.  The trip was two fold; to help him dig some bamboo for his retail operation and to attain more bamboo for my personal collection!

The bamboo I selected on this particular trip was Dendrocalamus validus, a newer introduction to the United States via Thailand.  What made me want this bamboo was seeing Chuck's Dendrocalamus validus that he had growing in his backyard, as the culms were nearly 5 inches in diameter and the height nearly surpassing the old oaks that were growing on the property!  Along with that, it had displayed a beautiful shade of orange that created a striking contrast on the green culms.  You can see from the picture on the right just how lovely this bamboo is and the size.  Those are three gallon pots next to the bamboo, so you get the idea truly how large this tropical clumping bamboo really is.  So it's easy to see how I fell in love with this bamboo. (more...)

We had a rather wicked but well needed storm blow into Jacksonville today.  The kids yelled from the upstairs that the bamboo was bent over and touching the pool enclosure, so I went up to investigate.  Sure enough it was, and I whipped out the camera to take some snapshots of the wind's effect on the clumping bamboo plants.  Someone recently asked over on on the Florida Bamboo Forum if bamboo would help to reduce the effects of hurricane force winds, and based on these pics I'd have to say probably not, that is unless the house was surrounded by a few acres of bamboo forest!

Anyways, the clumping bamboo to the right is Bambusa textilis mutabilis, the one in the middle is Bambusa dissemulator, and the bamboo on the right is Bambusa ventricosa Kimmei.  The first picture shows the bamboo with the wind at a lull, and the second pic shows the bamboo bent over the gale force winds.  Sorry about the glare in the second bamboo picture, forgot to cover the flash!