I'm no Bamboo expert, but I did read that bamboo will go 'dormant' in winter and stop growing. I had to look this up because my own stand of Golden Goddess hasn't put up any new culms since I took small divisions from it back in the fall. It's still green... ish, but, like yours, hasn't put on new growth. The divisions are just starting to put on some new growth, but the main clump is still inactive. I'm hoping that once summer hits, I will see new culms coming up. I would say if your Giant Timber is still green and in leaf, leave it be for now. Perhaps it is a slow-spreading type? Digging it up and moving it could just set it back and make it even longer before you see new culms.

It is pretty green and leafy. It put on its new growth right after we planted it a few yrs ago and then just sat there all last year and still is just sitting. Perhaps it is just growing roots? I read they should go in full sun in FL so that's why I was wondering if I should move it since the tree is shading it so much now. I just read about how much bamboo plants are these big monsters so I figured something must be wrong with ours lol.

In Leu and Kanapaha, there are quite a few bamboo that are surrounded by oaks or other bamboo. They mostly get the sun once it is high. Are the oak trees in question on the south side of the bamboo? Do you know abput how much sun the bamboo does get?

It is only getting morning sun now. After about noon it gets shaded by the tree.

Hmm... then yeah, it might need moved. As I mentioned, the ones at Kanapaha are shaed, but it is in the morning and evening. During the sunniest parts of the day they get the sun. Still, wait for someone a bit more learned on Bamboo to chime in, please.

I just went out there and it was only about 10 am and it was already in dappled shade so yeah, I think I should go ahead and move it. It would probably be easier to do it now before it gets much bigger anyways. Thanks for your help :) Now I just have to figure out where to put it lol.

~SJN

Not at all a bamboo expert here, but I do know that an hour or two or three of morning sun does not constitute "full sun", that designation indicating at a minimum, six hours of direct sun per day. And from the description, I'd bet from afar that lack of light is the issue.

BTW, one will often hear that plants make visible top growth and that if this is not apparent, then they must be putting their energy into root growth. In actuality, chemicals produced at the tips of new growth (above ground) are sent to the roots and there, stimulate root growth. That's one of the reasons why a severe pruning of a plant can set it back, or even kill it...the extreme loss of roots following such pruning. Same as scalping your lawn-not only sets the stage for weeds to take over, but severely reduces the amount of root system that turf has. Then too, roots are not permanent structures, at least not the feeder roots which do the actual work of absorbing water (with nutrients dissolved in that water). These recycle several to many times over the course of a single growing season.

+oM

Wisconsitom, I'm not disagreeing with you at all, but I do want to point out that here in Florida, we often have issue with plant labels. Here, when a plant is labeled as 'Full Sun', putting it in 6-8 hours of sun, especially if it is late afternoon sun, is a good way to melt it! Supposedly Lemon Balm likes Full Sun in some places, but if you put it in Full Sun in my yard, it will die in days. I put some on the east side of my house, near the wall, and it got 'Morning to noon' sun and then was shaded the rest of the day. It lasted a month. But if it is planted in a spot where it gets 3 hours of morning sun and then 3 hours of later afternoon sun, but shaded through the rest of the day, it does fine.

Yesterday I got home from a day of pressure washing my mother's house and found that one of my new purchases, a Purple Brazilian Salvia, was so severely wilted, I thought I had already lost it it. In it's spot, it had to have been in shade for much of the day, until 3-3:30 or so, but by 6pm when I got home, it was almost done. I moved it back to a shady spot and set it in a saucer of water and it rebounded, but boy was it ugly. Another plant that is 'Full Sun' in other places, but 3 hours of late afternoon sun almost did it in. Now, granted, as it is a very recent purchase from a local garden fair, it is very likely it needs to be hardened off, which is why I had it where I did. I just didn't think 3 hours of sun would have done that much damage.

Yes Michael, no substitute for local experience and an understanding of a given locale's idiosyncrasies. Truth is, I've done exactly zilch for gardening in your state! I know a lot of the plants and have a natural curiosity about everything, but to date, I've yet to sink a shovel into that sandy ground you guys have down there.

As far as that goes, the number of plant species wherein the descriptive info lists a dichotomy between northern and southern growing-especially as regards sun exposure-is legion. My guess is that should I ever be so fortunate as to actually do some FL gardening, there would be a fairly steep learning curve!

+oM

In my limited experience, there are generally three types of Northern gardeners in FL. The first are the most numerous, they pay a landscape crew to do it all for them and then claim they are the gardeners. The second are the ones who had a garden up north, full of tulips, hostas, daffodils and other temperate plants and they try to force all those plants to grow here. These are generally snowbirds who want their northern gardens to follow them here for the winter. It doesn't work. Not very well at least. The third, and luckily this is a growing group, are the gardeners who get here and, like you said, realize there is a big learning curve on adapting to the new environment. I was talking to one Master Gardener at the extension office and she said when she moved here from PA, it was like she had to relearn everything she knew about gardening. As for myself, when I moved here in '10, I was no kind of gardener. I was (and still am) a computer geek who couldn't afford to keep up with the technology, so I found a new hobby. While there is a certain artistry to designing and laying out a garden, one that I'm still trying to figure out, there is a very technical side to growing the plants themselves and that appeals to me.

I'd def. fall into the latter group, with an extra side-helping of native plant community thrown in. I'd strongly want any horticulture I'd do in Florida to be ABOUT Florida, a Florida look of some type. As such, I'm quite keen on a wide array of species native to SW FL, just because that's the only part of the state I have any experience with. And I simply LOVE a number of these native plants, things like Coontie, wild coffee, oh heck, I better not start listing. But I'm no purist either, as seen in my questions about various tropical trees, bamboos, forbs, and grasses, etc. etc. My list is large!

+oM

ps.........I wish there was a way to do italics on this board. There isn't, is there? I wouldn't have to shout then!