Our Bamboo News

February
2/27/2007 Wednesday

Yesterday morning, Steve and Anna stopped by. They are from Baton Rouge, LA. They have mailed ordered from us in the past and caught the bamboo bug that way. This time they wanted large plants, to cut down on the time it takes to get giant canes. They decided to purchase Phyllostachy Moso (the giant) , Phyllostachys Viridis 'Robert Young', Sasa Palmata, and Phyllostachys Nigra 'Black'. Interesting choices, now the only hard part is being able to find the perfect place to put them in your landscape.

With these choices, you get a wide range of sizes and colors. This is a well round selection for people who love all bamboos. Steve is an avid garden and his love for bamboo shows. Thanks for your order and it was a pleasure to get to spend time with you. It is always great to get to meet customers that you have mail ordered to.

2/26/2007 Tuesday



It has been one of those days where you are running as fast as you can and barely keeping up. I had  storm damage, sick employees, and great business opportunities. We had our normal mail orders going out, customers visiting, and a chance to be on the local news. With a little hard work, we made it through with flying colors.


The local Fox affiliate contacted us and wanted to come out to do a story on our bamboo. It was a beautiful day and I needed a little more stress in my life, so I agreed. I had about two hours to clean up storm damage from the weekend and get 60 acres looking pretty enough to be on the news. We'll just hope the editing comes out all right.

They setup the camera in a couple of different spots and hopefully got some great footage. This story is scheduled to go on the air next week. It is a great time for them to come during this beautiful weather. Everybody starts getting the spring fever this time of the year, and it is a great time to plant bamboo in our climate zone.



It is time to get wired up and ready to go. With all the cleaning up, I didn't have time to change clothes. I just threw on a pullover to hide the dirt. Besides, I just get in the way of people trying to see bamboo anyway.

Here we are during the interview process. I am trying to cram all of the pertinent information about bamboo into a 10 min special. Needless to say, viewers may be more lost after the program than before. I just hope they make it fun. This is an exciting plant and I would love for it to get some great press.


The interviewer and cameraman was impressed with bamboo. The interviewer's father actually grows bamboo and is fascinated with it. They were going to visit some of our local customers tomorrow to finish the program. Hopefully, this will help to get the word of bamboo out in our local area. Most of our business comes from out of state. The majority in the Northeast. Bamboo has so many genera, species, and subspecies that you can find one perfect for almost everybody. Click here for more photos.




Bill and Cindy visited our nursery Monday. They made the trip down from the Memphis, TN area. They live in one of the fast growing towns in America, just outside of Memphis. The land surrounding them that was once farm land has turned into the suburbs. The privacy they had is quickly going away and they thought bamboo would be perfect to regain their piece and quiet.


They needed a taller growing bamboo species because of the elevation of the new surrounding neighborhoods. They decided to select Phyllostachy Viridis 'Robert Young'. This has been a popular species this year and we are almost sold out. Just a few divisions are left.


Instead of purchasing a few large plants, they chose to cover more area with smaller divisions. We are able to mail order this size, but if you chose to pick them up, you save the $8.00 per plant shipping and handling. Once they were loaded up, they only had a short drive back. We appreciate your business and hope you love your bamboo. 


2/20/2007 Tuesday
                             
David took the trip down from north Alabama today to visit us. He was interested in expanding his current bamboo collection. David plans to start selling bamboo and poles after retirement. David is on fire for bamboo and was extremely excited to get the chance to see so much of it. Here, David is looking at Phyllostachys Dulcis commonly called sweet shoot bamboo. This is because the new shoots are edible and produce a sugar like taste.


   

                         
Here we are touring some of our screening bamboo species. This is  Phyllostachys Stimulosa. This bamboo only gets 25 feet tall and about 1.5 inches in diameter. Nestled along a trail in Oakman, Alabama it is also a long way from it's home in the Zhejiang Province in China. Most of the bamboo in the US comes from China, but has been here for many year thanks to dedicated people who have brought it through quarantine.


Gray Henon
 Moso
                     
 

  
Bamboo is removed from containers and placed into non treated burlap. The bamboo is planted in this burlap, which will rot in a few weeks in the ground. It is a great medium in which to transport plant  and saves the customer the effort of having to remove the pot. David purchased Moso, GoldStripe Moso, Black, and Robert Young.

 


Here is David with his new bamboo. David looks forward to growing more species of bamboo and starting a business that he loves. He is excited about trying to produce square canes and possibly selling poles. His enthusiasm for bamboo was great and it is good to see people so excited about bamboo.




With a little tender loving care in packing the bamboo, we had him ready to go. We really enjoyed the visit and wish him the best of luck in his new business endeavor.                   

 

2/18/2007 Sunday
This Sunday, Randy and his lovely wife Terry drove up from Mobile, Alabama.  This drive from the coast took them about 4 hours to reach our nursery. They needed a screen, not for privacy but, for a visual barrier to block out a undesirable neighbor. It is that horrible story of living in a nice neighborhood, but having that neighbor that can ruin everything. Bamboo is a good solution to such situations. Here randy is looking at some Phyllostachys Viridis 'Houzeau'.



After taking a tour, we started  loading them for the ride home. They chose 25 of the 15 gallon Phyllostachys Aurea that are on special. This is a great way to get an immediate  screen, perfect for people who needed the screen yesterday. Thanks for the order  and I hope this will be the perfect answer to your problem.


2/12/2007 Monday



It has been a long time since we had to buy 3 gallon pots. A couple years ago, a local nursery was going out of business so, we were able to buy all of their pots. See picture below of one load. It totaled about three loads of this size. We had in excess of 10,000 pots and, we never thought we could use all of them. Now, they are all full of plants ready to ship out. Plants are not shipped in pots. Instead they are removed, wrapped in layers of wet paper to hold moisture, and insulated in two layer of plastic. This ensures that your plant remains moist and healthy, even in the occasional extreme shipping condition.

This is one of the pallets of pots that we have ordered. There are 2200 pots on a pallet, so they should keep us busy for a while. We are striving to meet the demands of this growing industry with great plants. Potting plants help to develop root systems (vital part of colony plants) to insure that you receive great plants.










2/9/2007 Friday



These photos show some of the work that is being done on our new 48 acres of land recently purchased. We are growing to meet the huge demand of landscaping with bamboo. Over the years, we have grown from a small nursery to a much larger operation. Our inventory is nearing 10,000 containerized bamboo annually and 60 acres of property for growing over 150 species.

We can now accommodate the 18 wheel tractor trailer trucks for transporting large orders.

Acres and acres of land just waiting for us to plant bamboo. These fields had been cultivated for farm crops over the past 100 years. These terrace fields are all very fertile and well drained, ideal for bamboo. I played in these fields as a child and I am very happy to be able to work this land and bring it back to it past condition.


Large trenches three feet wide are needed for the huge 30 gallon size
bamboo divisions being planted.


Den, an employee of Lewis Bamboo plants some 15 gallon sizes. Giant Gray and Moso were planted this same day.

As I employ more workers, this allows me to spend quality time with our many visitors to the nursery. It also gives me the time to insure product quality to make sure that we are producing the best product we can. We strive to meet all of your bamboo needs, so let us know if we can help you in any way


A large grove of Robert Young is being moved to the new property. Below, 12 divisions dug and mulched with 24 inches of compost. These will be stabilized and ready to plant soon.


Deep inside a grove, Den removes some more bamboo for planting. Currently we are moving 143 different species to the new property.
Rubromarginata will now have several acres to spread and provide several thousand divisions to customers each year.



The trailer contains 50 large field divisions of Phyllostachys bissetii. These were dug from our groves and planted at the new site. Large 30 gallon size Moso were planted on the new property also.

We are all very excited to have all this land for our groves. This will allow us to expand even more to meet the growing demand for bamboo throughout North America.







Many plantings have already been completed, but a lot of work is scheduled before Spring time arrives.




Large planting of Phyllostachys nigra 'Black'. These were 15 and 30 gallon sizes planted.




These are 30 gallon sizes of Phyllostachys aureosulcata 'Yellow Groove' that were planted. This is a great cold hardy species, that can make an excellent screen.



We are digging and planting 15 to 30 divisions of each species to start new groves at this property.

Some groves will be started from well established 15 gallon container plants we have in stock. Groves started from divisions such as the one here will produce one inch canes this coming Spring. Within three to four years this 'Giant Gray' Henon division will be producing 3 inch diameter canes that are 35 to 50 feet in height.

 
  


Currently it takes around 2 hours to tour our mature groves. In the future we will be offering tours of this additional property. Walking through bamboo all day long and never seeing the same grove will soon be possible a Lewis Bamboo.


2/1/2007 Thursday
Today, Jeff visited from Nashville, TN. Nashville is about a three hour drive from our location and we get a lot of visitors from there and the surrounding area. Jeff travel down on his off time. Jeff is a singer on an international cruise line, an interesting career. Needless to say he enjoys plants when he is off the ship. The local power company in his area did him the favor of cutting his trees. This left him without any privacy at his house. Jeff wanted a solution to the privacy issue that would come faster than waiting for new trees to grow. Bamboo is a natural choice for such privacy and can provide it in just a few years. Here, Jeff is standing beside some black bamboo. It has a striking contrast with the green leaves on black canes.

Here, Jeff is standing beside a grove of Phyllostachys Bissetii.  This is a very cold hardy bamboo (-15) that can provide an excellent screen. It will get to 1" in diameter and grow to about 23' tall. It can provide screening all the way down to the ground and grows at an impressive rate. This is the species that Jeff decided was perfect for him. He desired a thick screen, short in stature, and green. This species will definitely do the job for him.

Jeff is pictured here with his plant that he purchased. It was a cold day, but a good day to become a bamboo owner. He is just a short drive, five holes, and a little time away from complete privacy. Thanks, Jeff for your order and it was a pleasure to get to meet you.


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