Golden Bamboo

aurora place

Overnight, green and brown shoots burst through fallen leaves. Springtime.

Phyllostachys aurea. Japanese Hoteichiku.

Origin

East China, introduced in Taiwan and in Japan long ago.

Characteristics

This bamboo cannot be mistaken thanks to the compacted nodes at the base of some of the culms. It has a tough nature and dense foliage. The colour of the plant is green. However when grown in the sun it has a golden hue about it, hence its name. It grows 7 m. or so with a culm diameter of 35mm.

golden

Use

I have found it growing in troughs on the balconies of high rise accommodation. Seen it Downtown Sydney at Renzo’s place. In Brisbane’s China Town, no pic, but trust me, people dine oblivious to street hordes not one meter away, hidden by a dense and hardy screen of well maintained Golden Bamboo.

Requirements

Withstands -20 degrees celsius but the foliage is damaged by -12 degrees celsius in a cold, dry wind. Trim the top to maintain your preferred height, this will encourage dense foliage lower down the culm.

aurea

Interest

Its dense foliage from top to bottom forms a wall of greenery.
In China, culms are eaten fresh or dried.

Connoisseur corner

In Sydney, we have a big Chinese community. I was once installing bamboo in the garden of a wealthy family and the lady owner proudly showed me a freezer full of Golden Bamboo shoots in freezer bags. Excited and whispering she described how early on Spring mornings she would go to a grove on public land and steal the shoots.
As Golden Bamboo is a pest plant growing in many areas of the city, she had no difficulty in obtaining enough shoots for a continuous supply. Remember, spring time.

How fast will it grow?

Of course, growth rate depends a lot on soil, climate, food and water.
Small plants are slow to get going, so starting off with a bigger plant will get you there much faster.

Golden Bamboo replaced

We have stopped selling Golden Bamboo and substituted Temple Bamboo. For reasons of beauty.

This family (genus) Phyllostachys was a prohibited plant in many areas. Don’t plant running bamboo in the ground. Use containers.

Here are submissions from Mr Bamboo to the NSW Department of Primary Industries, Noxious Weeds Committee, on behalf of the many species of Phyllostachys.
Can’t imagine that anyone would actually want to read these boring submissions. We post them here for your reference.