Bamboo grows quickly and is not only therefore very popular with us for garden design. What is less known is that garden bamboo also flowers and, depending on the type of bamboo, dies after flowering. Read what this phenomenon is all about.
When does bamboo bloom?
Bamboo begins to bloom at intervals of approximately 60 to 130 years, depending on the variety. The flowering period can last for several years, although the plant usually dies after flowering.
When does bamboo start to bloom?
No one can predict exactly when the bamboo will bloom: depending on the variety, flowering occurs at intervals of between approx. 60 and 130 years. The flowering period can then last for several years, with the grass forming seeds and new plants growing from them. This is also necessary because the mother plants die after flowering.
Despite intensive research, it has not yet been possible to find out exactly which factors influence the bamboo blossom. All that is known is that the flowering cannot be influenced or even stopped.
Why does bamboo die when it blooms?
Flowering usually costs bamboo plants so much energy that they practically die of exhaustion. You cannot prevent this and therefore, in the event of a bamboo flowering, you must ensure that new plants can grow in time.
However, not all bamboo species die: Pleioblastus and Phyllostachys are among the few varieties that bloom more often and continue to live afterwards. However, this is usually a stress bloom in which only a few stalks are affected and the clump as a whole continues to live.
When did bamboo last bloom?
The last time there was a major bamboo bloom was in the mid-1990s, which primarily affected Fargesia murielae - also known as garden bamboo - and other Fargesias. This bloom occurred in nearly all Fargesia species around the world and resulted in global bamboo die-off.
Plants currently available (as of 2022) should not bloom for the next 60 years. These - at least when it comes to high-quality breeding by gardeners - are vegetatively grown offspring of the mother plants that died at the time.
Why do all specimens of a bamboo variety bloom at the same time?
All commercially available bamboo plants of the Fargesia species originate from a few mother plants from which the cultivated bamboo was grown vegetatively, usually by root division. This means that they are basically genetically identical clones, which of course flower more or less at the same time.
Scientists also suspect a kind of “internal clock” that is genetically programmed into the plants and is therefore responsible for the similar timing of flowering.
What should you do when the bamboo blooms?
Flowering cannot be prevented, especially with Fargesia species. After flowering, you should either dig up the dead plants or cut them off close to the ground. The grasses have often already sown themselves, and their seeds quickly begin to germinate and sprout.
If a stress bloom occurs on Pleioplastus or Phyllostachys, you can simply cut off the relevant stalks. The clumps should then be watered thoroughly and supplied with a special bamboo fertilizer (€8.00 on Amazon).
Tip
Bamboo death caused by nutrient deficiency
Bamboo, especially Fargesia, dies after full bloom because it simply runs out of supplies. The rhizomes only store a small amount of nutrients, which is why the plants are physically overstrained by the flowering.
