Here's what I do. I sink some large bamboo canes around it giving it some room to breathe, and then wrap the stakes. I think if you just wrap the plant it will get too heavy when it snows and rains. And the canes will break. As long as you block the cold winds from hitting it directly you should be fine.Even though both of those are hardy to -20 F.Their first year they may not be this hardy. They should be just fine. Leave the top open. And good luck with your new addiction. I say that because I started 10 years ago and now have 22 species of bamboo. And still looking.

Thanks.
I guess the same technique can be used for our other new trees.
Question: If I leave the top open, won't the snow bury the plant?

It might bury the bamboo but it won't crush it. The snow actually acts as a blanket, believe it or not. With the cloth over top the weight will definetly break your canes. but the snow falling slowly and accumulating slowly will not hurt the canes. I've done this 3 years in a row to 3 different bamboos. It absolutely helps the bamboos strength for the following years shoots.

Great! I'll get some burlaps and sticks ready for winter.

boomantoo,

My P nigra was buried in snow most of the winter. It never really stood upright again. The canes appear to be permanently bent.

Is it okay to plant running bamboo next to your house in your zone 5 without fear of rhizomes damaging the house?? I have runners and clumpers but the runners are a couple hundred feet behind the house.

Trees could be a problem, but rhizomes will have zero impact on an intact foundation. If you have, say, an old cinder block foundation with cracks in it, then a rhizome might find its way in by accident.

I have been able to over-winter pots of heteroclada & moso by simply burying the pots in the ground and putting a plastic tarp over them. There may be a bit of leaf burn from the leaves that touch the plastic, but by keeping them low, they stay very well insulated and close to the soil temperature which means less water loss. As far as bending the culms, they will spring back up once the tarp is removed and new shoots will be larger anyways, but this has been my most effective method so far.

Burlap doesn't really stop the cold winds from dessicating plants especially if you are even 1 zone below me.

Highlander, be patient and when the new canes from next year come up and harden off you will be able to use them to prop up last years canes and the plant will look great again. I have so far struggled getting P. nigra going I lost 3 already. I think I finally found a good protected place for it, plus I'll wrap it like I do my other tender boos. Good Luck to all and their Bamboos.

boomantoo,

Actually, no, the new canes are quite substantial, but there is no way they are substantial enough to hold up the canes that are more-or-less lying down. This is not a case of floppy culms incapable of supporting themselves; it's culms one-inch and less that are actually, physically and permanently bent at an angle, just a few inches above the soil line.

I think it looks like crap and was heart-broken about it. The upside, though, is that because the grove was burried under snow, for the worst of the winter, I had almost no folliage loss and the upsize this year was considerable.