Bamboo Headquarters

Last weekend we celebrated the beginning of Spring in Southern California by bringing our office crew, and a cross section of our finest plants, to the 23rd annual Home and Garden Show in Del Mar. In addition to the Garden Marketplace of nursery displays, this 3 day extravaganza featured two huge exhibit halls filled with over 1400 exhibitors running the gamut of every industry related to home embellishment that you can imagine. There was also an additional building dedicated primarily to landscape displays on various themes done by the Garden Masters. This is always a great venue for getting a feel for what homeowners in our locale are seeking and a chance to personally invite them out to our display gardens.

As you can see in the photos, we have a new mascot we’ve nicknamed Moso. She was created by a local sculptor who also happens to be a good friend of ours. Moso not only fits right in with the plant décor, but she also likes to travel so you’ll be seeing more of her in the future. And if any of you would like to have your own custom metal sculpture please let us know and we’ll get you in contact with the artist.

For those of you who missed us at the Del Mar show, you can look forward to seeing us at the upcoming Flower Fields Exotic Plant Sale on May 2-3, the Encinitas Garden Festival also on May 3rd and at the California Grown Show in Pomona on June 4 with subsequent nursery tour days on June 5 and 6.

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We know that a picture is worth 1000 words, so we try our best to keep our photo library up to date. We have just recently updated our bamboo photo library and in the coming weeks will be adding more photos. If you have a great photo of a particular bamboo, be sure to contact us and we’d be happy to post it on our website!

We would like to thank everyone who checked in on us via email and phone to be sure we and our properties were safe. The fires went to the north and south of us. We were mostly covered with smoke and ash. Our manager Ron was evacuated along with his wife, two black Labradors, a turtle, and tree frogs. They stayed in our house and moved back after 6 days and fortunately only found a sooty ashy mess to clean up. Our main loss was to bamboo plants that we could not water at our propagation greenhouse for 4 days. Most of it will recover by next summer. We were lucky. Our hearts are with those who were not so lucky.

Ralph Evans, Owner

Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles.

Horticultural experts sold their wares on October 7th, and shared their expertise during a gardening extravaganza involving bonsai (trees in containers), aiseki (viewing stones), bamboo, and more! Participants included Aiseki Kai, Fuji Bonsai Nursery, San Gabriel Nursery, Kushi’s Tree Design, Torrance Cymbidium Society, NK Tree Nursery, Descanso Bonsai Society, and Ralph Evans of Bamboo Headquarters. Ralph’s topic was “Planting Bamboo is not a crime.”On display were his favorite bamboos, suited to Japanese Gardens. Other items sold included tools for working with bamboo and books about bamboo. The Living arts expo was in conjunction with the exhibition Landscaping America: Beyond the Japanese Garden

The Exhibition continues through Jan 6, 2008. Ralph’s favorite display was of all the early mowing, pruning, and relatedtools used by Japanese gardeners in the 60’s. The same era as Ralph’s first lawn mowing route. For more about the museum visit http://www.janm.org/visit/.

Ralph speaks at the Japanese American Museum in Los Angeles.

Yumi Arai assists in the Bamboo Headquarters Booth at the Japanese American Museum in Los Angeles.

We have received 30 entries for our 1st Annual Bamboo Headquarters Garden Contest! You can view all of the entries on here! The Bamboo Headquarters Staff has picked the winners of the contest. Below are the winning garden photos and the prizes they have won!

1st Place Winner: Mike from El Segundo

This has been about 2 years into a backyard transformation that required the removal of eight large trees that were outgrowing the yard. Yes, I took them all out myself, roots and all. The planter along the wall was replanted with black bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra), making an elegant privacy hedge. It should continue to run up near the Australian Tree Fern, being constrained by the 60 mil by 24 inch rhizome barrier I bought from Bamboo Headquarters. Just to the right of the tree fern is a transplanted Bambusa Vulgaris ‘Vittata’ which is now sending up some new culms. It should fill in nicely. At the top of the yard is a row of giant timber bamboo, which serves as a wind break and late afternoon sun shade. The vertical photo shows a potted Mexican Weeping Bamboo in the foreground. Also take note of the ceramic bamboo fountain behind the small fish pond in the ground level corner (Bambusa ceramica fountaina!).

Not shown in the photos are several potted golden bamboo, and a Bambusa ‘Alphonse-Karr’.

Thanks for the contest. It’s great to see what other people are doing with their bamboo gardens.

Best regards,

Mike

Congratulations Mike! Mike will receive four 1 gallon bamboo plants, appropriately suited for his zone!

2nd Place: Gianettos Bamboo Garden

The best way to present the garden is with some before/after photos showing the dramatic growth. All seven species of bamboo were planted in the first few days of March 2007. The final photos are in the last few weeks of July (five months of growth).

Below is the planted pot of f. robusta, and p. nigra ‘henon’ on the right. You can see the f. rufa on the far left:

Same plants in July (5 months of growth):

On the opposite side (west facing wall) an interleaving pattern of p. b. Castillon, and Castillon ‘Inversa’:

Same plants in July:

Along the garage, a row of p. nigra ‘black’ was planted, along with Himalayacalamus falconeri ‘Damarapa’ flanking the fountain:

Same plants this July:

Along with the ‘Damarapa’ some Himalayacalamus Hookerianus ‘Blue’ was planted along the back north-facing wall:

Same plant this July:

Close up of ‘Damarapa’

Still waiting for the blue culms on the hookerianus… must have patience.

Congratulations to the Gianettos! The Gianettos will receive one 1 gallon bamboo plant, appropriately suited for their zone!

5 “Runners” Up: Jeff from NYC, Mike from Florida, Linda from New Orleans, Don and Julie from Placentia, Mike from Sugarland

Runners up will receive Bamboo Headquarters T-shirts and bumper stickers!

A big thank you to all of our participants. Everyone enjoyed your beautiful gardens! All participants will receive a special discount towards the purchase of plants on our online store! We plan on running this contest again, so start to prep your gardens for next year and don’t forget to view all of the entries on on our website! Also sign up for our newsletter or RSS feed to be notified of our next contest!