I have some black bamboo(Ph. nigra)divisions putting up some fresh shoots now. I would be interested in any non-white water lilies. Chris

I have never trimmed my potted ventricosa before, but I believe in order to get the huge bellies, you need to get the plant upsized to a certain diameter. Once it is big enough less water and the most sun you can get it should allow it to put out its shoots slowly and strong, thus creating buddha bellies. I've seen buddha belly in Hong Kong at around 40ft tall before with culms at 6 inches towards the base so they can get huge. I base most of my soil mix on peat moss and compost from various sources for all my bamboos. I generally grow running temperate kinds, but do have a few clumpers to mess around with.

Well, you can see from that site that they think Buddha Belly is ok indoors. I'm not convinced, but that's a pretty reputable vendor, so it's a possibility. I'm in a much milder climate than yours, and I do overwinter some of my tender bamboo in my greenhouse. However, there are several things to remember. First, you can look up bamboo hardiness ratings, and those are a good approximate guide. What a hardiness rating means is that is the temperature at which the bamboo will die. Second, bamboo in pots are less hardy than in the ground so you have to raise the hardiness number by about 10F to account for that. Finally, damage to the culms and leaves occurs well above the hardiness rating (maybe 10F-20F higher). All of this is to say that you may have a hard time over-wintering bamboo in an unheated greenhouse in your climate. The main problem for you is that, even if you have a very hardy bamboo, if it's in a pot, the pot will freeze, and, if that persists for several days, you are really doing damage to the root system. I'm not trying to discourage you, but just injecting some reality. I think you would really need to provide some supplemental heat in a greenhouse to make it an ok environment for bamboo. If you want to check out more pictures of bamboo and their characteristics, try the link below. When you click on a specific name in the window at the bottom of the page, and then on one of the thumbnails for that species, you will see the hardiness rating and other characteristics for that plant. Here is a link that might be useful: BambooWeb

I just planted three dwarf buddha bellys here at my home in Fort Myers. I was really impressed by your photos. Would love to hear your tips as to how to make sure i properly care for these. I have read a lot about them online even though there's limited info. I've also talked to my local nursery who's actually very informative. However the wamin they have growing which has been there for three years does not look nearly as impressive as yours! In particular i want to achieve the tallest possible height possible. I am going to water daily for the first 30 days. I have a 2" thick mulch bed down. The main question i have is on the fertiziler. Do you regularly fertilize? What exactly do you use? should i allow these to get established before fertilizing? Would love any feedback you can give me. - Chris