Read your post. Sounds like a classic case of overwatering. I have bamboo in South Texas (zone 10). I started out overwatering as well. Bamboo does not like to be soaked. If you can, dig down a little ways and look at the node (culm lines). You can visibly see a drowning plant. All of the tissue will be mushy and brown around the node. You need to let this dry out to try to get some new growth and root, but do not leave it exposed to air after you view it. Cut back your watering drastically. If you see the leaves start to curl in, then you will know it is too dry and time to water again. As to fertilizer - ABSOLUTELY. Bamboo is a grass and so LOVES a very high nitrogen count fertilizer. You can feed it monthly (or less with a slow release fertilizer). You can buy a very inexpensive grass fertilizer like a 32-0-10 or 29-0-0 at Lowes or Home Depot. Make sure it is NOT a weed and feed variety or you can kill the plant. The Scotts sells for $35 for a 50 lb. bag or $13 for a smaller bag. For my full grown, 5-foot diameter plants, I put a full coffee cup per plant. If your Alphonse Karr plant is new and about a 5 gallon size, I would put 1/4 to 1/2 coffee cup of the fertilizer spread all around the plant, not just directly on the roots, and maybe a little more after you see it start to respond. Water a little to soak it in and then watch the leaves turn brilliant green over the next couple weeks. If you have a high alkaline soil, you can also add a few minerals like Calcium and Magnesium, or just some garden sulpher. That's why I buy the grass fertilizer with added 2% sulpher. If it looks like you are going to lose the plant, I would dig it up and let it recover in a mix of 1 part sand, 1 part peat moss and 1/4 part compost until it starts to shoot again. Remember, it likes full sun 5-6 hours a day. Good luck. Alphonse is a beautiful peach-shooting plant!

Mine grows as a bush also. It's around 4 feet tall, and if I didn't have the stems supported with bamboo stakes, the stems would bend over. I just clip them to stems. I've seen this hoya (H. multiflora) grown in a hanging pot, and I personally prefer letting it grow upright. Here are some pictures of it that I took a while back (it's MUCH taller now, but I'm trying to hold off on trimming it): The bamboo stakes are not easy to see because they are green, but if you look closely you'll see each stem clipped to a green stake. Gabi

The top of the root may get dead in the oldest areas. If I notice this is dead I just break pieces off. New shoots will come from portions still alive so I never get large areas with no new shoots. In the winter when I cut the old plant back I leave about six inches of the old stems. These dry and are very stiff in the winter and protect the new buds. The stiff dry shoots from the year before now will usually be able to break off. These often will take a part of the root top with them. Where the weather is colder and the buds are below the soil level this may not be true. For us who must deal with minimum chilling the top of the root is exposed to air temperatures which allows us to grow peonies that bloom. Al

I'm going to bump this back up to the top and set it on the base of a related plant - Cyclamen, not because I've grown either dodecatheon nor cyclamen outdoors. I can't remember doing anything other than picking up a florist cyclamen as a gift. Hardy cyclamens bloom at a different time of year but, perhaps, their care is similar. Shooting stars are most everywhere here in the lightly forested areas and some of the grasslands. Blooming so early in the season, they are a delight for someone taking a walk in the woods on a warm Spring day. digitS'