F&F, "the dictum" is mostly true. Thing is, it's not the only facet one is typically dealing with. IOWs, while caliper will increase more and faster when all branches are retained, one is apt to end up with a too-low branching on their tree(s). So a modified approach is called for. Don't go nuts removing every branch that is lower than where you ultimately want the branching to begin. Take your time. Both you and the tree have plenty of it! As far as seed-grown stuff, I like it the best of all, hands down. And I'd add, trees generally "know" how they should grow. Like Scot said above, the openness of the site is the reason these plants are not behaving like their forest brethren. Sunlight is hitting them strongly from every angle, so they are branching out to take advantage of it. Just curb their natural impulses judiciously. +oM

Bamboo is a heavy self mulcher, more than any tree. The culm sheaths and leaves pile up a little higher each year under the bamboo. So I'm not sure a chipper would be necessary, and the culms themselves might be a little problem in a chipper, because of it's high silicone content. I have an excess of organic material each year due to the remarkable carbon seqestration of the plant. I give away the culms to artists and craftsmen, or pile it up in a woooded area to let it slowly rot when I clear out old, smaller diameter, or dead culms. About one fourth of the grove is removed each year. This makes it pleasant to walk through. When bamboo flowers every twenty to one hundred and fifty years, instead of producing viable seed, it often dies out and if it doesn't, it is severely set back for several years. There is no case in one hundred and thirty years in this country, in fact, where it has spread by seed, and and that's over a hundred different species. It's been cultivated so long, it's lost it's ability to spread by seed, at least in the U.S., and it's easier to propagate it vegetatively, though one can order seed it's not legal to import seed so I don't, and it's tricky starting out with seed anyway. Bamboo doesn't march on forever, unless it's in an artificial environment where trees are intentionally limited, and lawns are created, such as in the city. It outcompetes lawns, being that it's a grass that grows tall. There is a forty year old grove nearby that has spread one quarter of an acre, since it competes for sunlight, it's stopped it's "march", and has settled in and become a part of the "ecology". The rhizomes that peter out are tremendous soil builders, the microflora benefit from the high carbohydrate content, lots of sugars and starch. You can take a poor soil and make it great, simply by planting bamboo and wiping it out later as described earlier. Like no other plant including nitrogen fixing legumes. It has no allelopathic properties, and trees and bamboo get along well and can mutually benefit each other. The tree supplies some shade, the bamboo supplies mulch for the tree. It is a symbiotic, rather than a parasitical, relationship. It's a forest plant for heavens's sake, it's in the plant's interests not to destroy it's natrual environment.

Where a species of butterfly chooses to stay is really an interesting point. If you walk down my street on a summer morning and look from the front yard of my house to the back yard, you will probably see at least 5 species and multiplies of these species at any given time. Look to the yard to the left or right or behind you and you might see a stray butterfly, usually headed towards my yard. Another point - a neighbor about 3 houses away also has a butterfly garden of sorts. He has a huge Pipevine growing against his house. My Pipevine grows on a wooden fence the depth of my yard. It was recently totally eaten down in a matter of a week. I took at least 60 cats to his house to put on his vine that had a couple cats on it. I gave another friend about the same amount of cats for her vine and I still had cats crawling on the ground making their chrysalis because even the stems of the vine were eaten. Now, why do the Polys stay in my yard and continue to try to find vine to lay on when just that short distance there is ample food? He doesn't spray pesticides, basically has the same predators I would like Cardinals, wasps, and anoles. I am now having to remove eggs and tiny cats that hatch just to let my vine regrow. There were at least 20 Polys out there this morning chasing each other and trying to find vine to lay on. My point is you can't make them come or make them stay or make them go away (well unless you get rid of their hosts!). We are also seeing a change in the migration path for our state butterfly Zebra Longwing. I have yet to see one come in my yard this year despite having several types of Passionvine that they use. In past years I was releasing up to 2 dozen a day for several weeks in the summer. The past winter was so bad that some believe the butterflies suffered since they do have a long lifetime since they also collect pollen as well as nectar. They are still seeing them in south Florida and along the coast but not in the interior as in the past. When I was raising and releasing them, I never saw many stay in my yard. Most would leave and only 2 to 3 pairs would stay. My theory was that the others would continue north since they are common (or were) common throughout the state. I would love to have some to raise and get them re-established in the area but I bet they wouldn't stay but move on. I actually did get a few eggs from a friend in South Florida and released 5 but all left immediately. Again, you can't make them stay. Its in their genetic makeup to do what nature wants them to do.

Of course they slow with age and anything can happen. But so many times I have seen (and even experienced personally) how the enthusiasm for one specific cultivar can cause us to rationalize it's choice five ways from Sunday only to admit our errors ten years later. If there is only one lesson to be learned about gardening it would be to choose one specific cultivar for one specific area instead of falling in love with the idea of something and trying to talk ourselves into thinking it could work within our limitations. We somehow get attached to a convoluted vision of how we think a tree should behave and spend tons of energy convincing ourselves and everyone else how we will make it work, but often the trees have other ideas. That is such a prime focal point in your garden- you only have so many such spots and a light, delicate, airy small tree seems just the thing. I would only hope that you choose something that you can spend time sitting back and admiring in it's full glory rather than pruning and staking and attempting to bend it to your will for the rest of your life. Yes, you can "get all bonsai" on it and restrict it's growth my making pruning your primary hobby. But do realize that the growth restrictions achieved by bonsai techniques have as much, if not more, to do with root pruning as they do with trimming the canopy. Good luck. Please update us in 2026!