Long, cold winter days, dreaming of the perfect garden to visit......

Last year, a gentleman I do business with in the bamboo trade, was kind enough to give me a catalog (attached) for a really spacial place near Anduze, France (southern part of the country) called La Bambouseraie. La Bambouseraie is a bamboo park and has a long history stemming back to 1856. Considering that this park survived a few wars, including the two world wars, its amazing its still around.

Below is the history excerpt from the La Bambouseraie website:

"This property, which extends over 34 hectars (84 acres), is located 11 km south-east of Alès and 2 km north of Anduze. Geographically, it is a basin whose bottom is made of alluvial deposits from the Quaternary and whose sides are formed by limestone from various periods, and by granite. Not far from Prafrance, the river Gardon makes its way through a narrow canyon, of granite upstream (Roucan) and of limestone downstream (Anduze Rocks). Prafrance enjoys a Mediterranean climate, with an average rainfall of 1100 mm per year, but it can be very irregular, from torrential storms to drought. This is why the park has been equipped with a 5 km long network of permanent irrigation canals.

It is in this privileged setting that the “bambouseraie” of Prafrance was created by a native of the Cévennes region with a passion for botany : Eugène Mazel. Mazel had made a fortune in trading with spices he directly imported from Asia. This activity allowed him to have plants, practically unknown in Europe at that time, sent to him from these distant countries. In 1856, Mazel bought the property of Prafrance from Anne de Galière in order to realize his dream : create a bamboo plantation, a “bambouseraie”. The word “bambouseraie” did not exist at the time. Only many years later was this name given to Mazel’s plantation in Prafrance. The natural conditions of the site seem to be favourable for his project. The local microclimate apparently suits the bamboos. Only one thing is missing : water. Mazel then undertook gigantic works to bring the water harnessed upstream from the Gardon. Thanks to the three elements : water, soil and climate, the undertaking was a success. Mazel was able to acclimatize a number of bamboo species, and many other exotic plants as well. Fabulous plant collections were put together in Prafrance, which required the care of a great number of gardeners. This cost a lot of money and in 1890 Mazel was ruined.

He would never recover from having to leave his property to the Crédit Foncier de France. Prafrance was managed by this bank until the 2nd November 1902, when it was bought by Gaston Nègre. Nègre devoted all his energy in salvaging what remained of Mazel’s collections, trying not only to preserve them but also to enrich them. From 1948 on, Maurice Nègre, an agricultural engineer, carried on his father’s work. While fighting to restore the park, which had been heavily damaged by the floods of 1958, he died in an accident in 1960.

The “Bambouseraie” might never have recovered from this lost, had not Mrs Nègre decided to devote her life to continuing her husband’s work. She did it with courage and success. In 1977, her daughter Muriel and her son-in-law Yves Crouzet, an horticultural engineer, took over the management of the estate and the development of the park. Since 2004, Muriel is running the Bambouseraie."

Today, I couldn't help but think about how cool it would be to visit La Bambouseraie. Unfortunately the English version of their site has a lot of broken links, but the French version has a virtual tour you should check out.

Also, check out this video (click link), its in French, but you can see from it why this looks like a gardners dream:


La bambouseraie - kewego

Winter days, what garden pardise do you dream of visiting to escape it all?

Sean

Eeek! NBC gets it wrong.... Lucky Bamboo is not bamboo!

NBC Nightly News did a "green" report on bamboo and how it is becoming the new source for fabric and flooring tonight. Glad to see my favorite plant getting some favorable press, but alas, NBC perpetuates a grand misperception..... lucky bamboo is not bamboo!

While interviewing a clothes designer, the designer explains that his bamboo fabric line is made from bamboo and EEK, he's pointing to Lucky Bamboo!



Don't scream at the TV much, but it even had my wife screaming.

Lucky Bamboo (Dracaena sanderiana), as defined by the American Bamboo Society, is a native of Cameroon, in west Africa and is a understory rainforest plant - "The first thing to say is that small green stems in small vases filled with some rocks and a little water sold as Lucky Bamboo across the U. S. are not bamboo at all. They are not even a grass..."

Too bad the reporter didn't do a bit more research, Lucky Bamboo is cool and all, but has nothing on the real deal.....

Sean

Bamboo trek: Spring is almost here!

For me, the beginning of spring is signified by my first trip to my wholesaler to get ready for those "green thumbs" and bamboo collectors looking to add more bamboo to the garden. Since clumping bamboo (the mild non-invasive cousin of the running bamboo) is fairly easy to get, the options abound for really any type of landscape idea or need.

This will also help me prepare for my (aka Mad Man Bamboo's) first plant sale of the season at the Shepard Arts and Garden Center at Sacramento's McKinley Park on March 22, by supplementing the stock I grow on site with other varieties not available to me. The sale is put on by the Sacramento Perennial Plant Club and the table rent proceeds and auction help support their good organization.

The date for my bamboo trek is set for a couple of weeks from now and am using my handy-dandy American Bamboo Society Species/Source list (my weathered 2006 list pictured) a must for any "bamboo geek" like myself, to gather my wish list.

For me, this is like a kid in a candy store, and I am sure to come back with more varieties for my customers and a couple here and there for my personal collection.

More posts to come.....

After pretty much shutting down for the winter, this bamboo trek means the season is officially on for me. Spring can't come soon enough, I'm sure you fellow "green thumbs" are with me on that!

Sean

Bamboo homes from Hawaii

Ran across this site - Bamboo Living Homes by Bamboo Technologies. Real bamboo homes made by a company out of Haiku, Hawaii. It's a very interesting alternative to the bland vanilla stucco production homes that you see here in many parts of California (and most of the nation).

Looks like they harvest the bamboo in Vietnam using a clumping variety, bambusa stenostachya, or "tre gai".

The site covers all aspect of bamboo harvesting in Vietnam, fabrication, shipping and assembly at the home site. Interesting concept and from the website, the homes have some real architectural interest and nice finish work. You can take a virtual tour of the company's model home in Kaui.

Now if I had some spare cash lying around and a lot in the country.... hmmm... OK time to stop dreaming.

Cheers!

Sean

"Mad" over bamboo

Growing bamboo for me is fun, I appreciate the beauty of the plant and selling it gives me the opportunity to interact with a variety of people, those that appreciate plants and gardening more than most. My business is unlike any other, I grow bamboo, part-time and sell by appointment and at local plant sales. No store front, low overhead and on my own terms.

My business is small and low key, makes enough money to support my bamboo collecting habit, but not so intensive that it infringes on my personal life.

Many of the people that visit ask how I got into plants and bamboo. I attribute it to my mother-in-law who really introduced me to gardening, morphed into tinkering and growing Japanese Maples. Japanese Maples are beautiful, but for a lazy gardener like myself, they required alot of attention and time and not much profit when all was said and done.

Bamboo is easy to grow and I appreciate the challenge of overcoming the mis-information on bamboo (that all bamboo is invasive). The perfect plant for the laziest of gardeners. The colors, shapes and leaves offer a big payoff for relatively little effort.

I also have found strength in my business is through carrying bamboo varieties that cannot be found in this area and operating within a niche that can coexist among the big boys like Home Depot, Lowes.

I also figure that my low key business model is a nice slow intro to the nursery industry. Once I can financially pull it off to buy some land, maybe I'll open a storefront nursery in the country.

Finally, through my website - www.madmanbamboo.com I'm amazed by the extent by which people are interested in bamboo, getting web hits form all over Europe, east Asia, South Africa and all over the U.S.

So, what up with the name - Mad Man Bamboo? The name came from my wife who says I'm "mad" about bamboo. That's in crazy through obsession. But its a good obsession that keeps me happy, so its all good in my book.

Cheers!

Sean
Mad Man Bamboo
www.madmanbamboo.com

Experiment - fertilizing naturally or not, what makes a better looking, healthier bamboo?

In my ongoing renovation of my backyard, I began focusing on the southwest corner of my yard. I planted four (likely will be five by tomorrow) bamboo, f. murileae "Umbrella Bamboo", t. crassinodus "Kew Beauty", t. crassinodus "Merlin", f. robusta and the fifth will be b. fungosa.

Trying to grow using more natural methods, I opted to use compost from my bin (pictured) which now has a good mixture of leave and grass debris and recently (3 months or so) we began including kitchen scraps from fruits and vegetables. Needless to say after finally being good about turning the compost, we are starting to get some rich compost.

So, for the past couple of years, I have been using Osmocote to fertilize my bamboo as a slow release and have been fairly happy with the results. However, becoming more aware of the impact of synthetic fertilizers, I am going to try something different on these five newly planted bamboos.

When I planted them, I put a thin layer of compost on top, not only to protect the root structure from frost, but as a natural fertilizer.

Pictured are the subjects of the experiment (from left to right) t. crassinodus, "Kew Beauty"; f. murileae "Umbrella Bamboo" and f. robusta.

Let the experiment commence!

Sean

Great bamboo resource and a venue to trade (and buy)) bamboo plants if your a collector

Aptly named, I am a "bamboo geek." I collect bamboo, like it were stamps, comic books or coins. With hundreds of varieties in the U.S., there is plenty to collect and living in California (with great weather, comparatively speaking) allows me the opportunity to collect running and the mostly sub-tropical clumping bamboos.

A great resource for the beginning collector to the expert nursery operator is bambooweb.info. Partially funded by the American Bamboo Society, it is a great venue to get advice on growing bamboo, pests and diseases and the best part, trading (or buying/selling) with private collectors.

I recently completed a transaction with a fellow collector in the south bay area and I was happy with the results.

This is the site to check out if you appreciate bamboo, like I do - http://www.bambooweb.info/bb/index.php