March 31st.

Jamie and Stephanie from Atlanta arrived right on time for their visit yesterday. Roger
showed them around the groves for an hour or so and then they selected their new
bamboo. Originally they had wanted the large 15 gallon sizes of Moso, but after viewing
the 'Giant Gray' Henon changed their minds.

 
Inside the Gray Henon groves, Roger answers all their questions and
explains the special characteristics of this species. In our location here
on the river, 'Giant Gray' has been one of our fastest growing species
in sizing up to larger diameters in under 5 years.





Above left in our 'Black' grove shows a nice 2 inch diameter cane. Looking
skyward inside one of the timber groves the photo above right shows the
overhead canopy.



Above left, Russell stands with some 7 and 10 gallon containers of 'Giant Gray'. These specimens
were around 12 feet in height. All loaded and wrapped, Jamie and Stephanie head back
to Georgia with their new 'Giant Gray' and nigra 'Black' bamboo. 


March 28th.

Confirmation of two more large field specimen size orders have been completed.
Roger and Russell will complete the digging of these two orders today. Phyllostachys
bissetii is the principal species for both these orders. One order is going to Illinois and
the other going to Grapevine, Texas. The customer from Illinois is flying into Birmingham
and will rent a large truck to pick the order up here. The order to Texas will be delivered
by Roger later in May. All these bamboo divisions will be in the 18 to 22 foot height range.

March 25th.

Today Scott, Natasha and their beautiful dog Kayla drove over from Atlanta
for a visit. It was a very cool and windy day for this time of the year. They got
to see the 'Moso' shooting and toured the groves. They took home some 'Black'
and 'Spectabilis' for planting.

   
Inside one of the 'Giant Gray' Henon groves with Kayla
in tow. To the right above shows the beautiful coloration on 'Spectabilis'. Below
right is the 'Black'.    


Above the tour is over and the bamboo shown
behind them is about to be loaded up.

A beautiful new shoot of P. a. 'Spectabilis. Scott
and Natasha picked out two nice specimens of this great little bamboo.
It can grow well over 20 feet tall and while very easy to manage it is
often selected for plantings in small areas. We hope they
enjoyed the visit and will return again soon.


March 24th.

We are rushing around trying to get ready for a customer to visit this morning. Gayle and I just
delivered this past weekend. We drove to Woodstock, Dublin, and Perry, Georgia before returning
home late Friday. Sorry if we missed your phone calls or email during this time. We are returning
calls and emails now and hopefully will be caught up soon.


Above we arrived and I began unwrapping the 157 divisions for this order.


Mrs. Howe and her son were so nice and even helped us unload the bamboo. All
these 'Golden' divisions will do excellent in their new home. Chris is planting these
all along the back property line to form an beautiful privacy screen. All the 3 gallon
divisions were around 6 to 8 feet tall and since it was a large order we delivered them
so they would not have to be topped for UPS shipping.


March 21st.

In case you haven't noticed we are extremely busy now days. In the past
we posted one page a year for our news. As we grew, there was so much
to load, we divided it into 6 month periods. Now we are doing a month
at a time due to the amount of information and photos. We get great
feed back and hope you all enjoy seeing our bamboo news.

Jason Andra visited us from Creative Aquatics today. They picked up a large
order consisting of several different species. Most all were to be used around
water features which is the business they operate. Below Jason and friend
stand at the entrance to Lewis Bamboo.



Below left, they are at a grove of 'Green Onion' bamboo
discussing how attractive this little bamboo is. Ideal for
planting around water features due to its minimal leaf
drop during the year.


Above right and below they load with the truck with P. edulis 'Moso', P. bissetii
P. viridis 'Robert Young', Ps. japonica 'Arrow' and Sasa Palmata seen below left.
The beautiful shrub bamboo 'Arrow' is used being used around many 'Koi' ponds.

 

Above right is the 'Arrow' bamboo also used around water features. This very
erect species has large dark green foliage with persistent culm sheaths making
it a very striking back drop to any area.

On this particular order there were a total of 39 divisions and 300 feet of HDPD
barrier was loaded. The in ground root barrier is used to contain the rhizomes
which may puncture a pool or pond line. We also gave them several nice bamboo
poles to use in their up coming projects.


Their truck had a very nice mural painted on the doors. Thanks again to
Creative Aquatics for choosing Lewis Bamboo. We hope to be of service
for years to come. All our commercial customers get their own web page.
All these are listed on our main bamboo news page under commercial
customers. Feel free to contact any for references or your own landscaping
jobs.





March 20th.

We have another delivery to make on Thursday of this week. This order will be going
to Woodstock, Georgia.  It will consist of 150 divisions of the P. aurea 'Golden'
bamboo.

Even though it was raining today, we had a customer drive over from Atlanta, Georgia
to pick up 4 of our large 15 gallon size specimens. Below are photos and details on
all this.


Don, a super nice fellow from Atlanta picked up four different species
of bamboo on this trip. He hopes to return soon for some more. He
chose the P. dulcis 'Sweetshoot', P. edulis 'Moso', P. nigra Henon 'Giant
Gray' and P. nigra 'Black'. All were in 15 gallon containers that had over
one year of rhizome growth. The roots completely circled the inside of each
container and will produce large new canes this Spring.


Above, Roger Sr. is doing another protective wrap around a new Moso
shoot that is around 18 inches tall already. It had just emerged from the
root ball less than one week ago. It was stabilized by wrapping it to a
harden cane with a strip of burlap. This will prevent it from breaking
during the journey to its new home.


Above left is the 'Giant Gray' and next to it is of course the 'Black'.







Below is part of the order being delivered this Thursday to Georgia. The
photo on the left shows 80 of the 150 that the customer ordered. These are
our untopped 3 gallon 'Golden'. They average 6 to 8 feet tall and have a 20
pound root ball that is wrapped in burlap. The burlap is planted with the
division and holds all the soil intact during transport. Our own soil mix of
composted chicken manure, hardwood sawdust, river bottom silt and a
couple more additives are added to each root ball before being wrapped.


Below is one of the canes on the 'Golden' bamboo. Note the beautiful little stacked
or compressed nodes on this species. The canes emerge a nice green color each Spring.
During the Summer months, with direct sun light, they will turn golden in coloration.

This is nice bamboo for privacy screening
and grows very fast. We currently are selling the 3 gallon 'Golden' for $35 each.
We are doing our best to stay caught up with the mail orders and landscape
deliveries. Thanks to all our customers who are making this the best year since
we began selling back in 1995.

March 19th.

Newspaper article sends another customer to Lewis Bamboo. We had
a new customer visit us from LaFayette, Louisiana to pick up some of our 15
gallon size Moso. All these specimens had nice new canes emerging. Our Moso
always begins it new shoot growth in late March each year.

   
Donnie had informed us he would be arriving with a long goose-neck trailer
after unloading at a job site in Demopolis. Due to the length of the 35 foot
trailer, we made special packing and loading arrangements. Below left, Russell
stands in the truck bed with the Moso which were individually wrapped.


All specimens were around 16 feet tall, this Spring each should put up some 20 to
24 foot tall canes. Roger Jr. loads the 100 to 125 pound root balls into the trailer
below. The Moso had been wrapped in burlap so they would be ready to plant.
The plastic wrapping will protect each one from wind damage during the trip home.

  
Around 2 gallons of water had been added to each sealed root ball to ensure plenty
of moisture for the trip. Donnie was very pleased to be getting the giant bamboo
Moso. He had read about Moso in the Central City newspaper which did a feature
story about this species. Lewis Bamboo worked as consultants with the editor of the
paper and many gardeners have chosen Moso from us as a result of this fine article.



Above is a photo of some of the 15 gallon size Moso we have. We have
sold hundreds, but a few are still available in this size.



March 16th.

Below are photos from the Houston delivery. We have another order to Houston pending
and will know about it soon. Also, there is a customer picking up ten of the 15 gallon Moso
today so hopefully I can get that posted soon. We are running out of time with the mail
orders and landscapers, but be patient and we will have some beautiful photos coming soon.

 

Above is the beautiful home under construction that is adding bamboo for privacy.
Below Roger unloads and then speaks with Mike Scott the landscaper doing this job.

 

With the bamboo all carried to the backyard our job is completed. Mike was super
pleased with the bamboo and will be ordering more in the future from us.




March 13th.
 
We are having so many customers visit right now that appointments are
being booked two weeks in advance. Below are photos of the visits with
several different groves of bamboo in the backgrounds.


Some our guest liked to be photographed in the Moso grove. Several
of last year's canes were 9 inches in diameter at the base. Most are
now well over 60 feet tall. This month the new canes will emerge
and should be well over 70 feet tall. They will reach this height by
the end of April. Above are Carson and Brenda from Smokrise,
Alabama. They chose Moso in the 15 gallon size and several smaller
specimens of Pigskin and Vivax. They will use these species for nice
walk through groves and privacy screening.



Also visiting today from Locust Fork, Alabama were two
brothers who have been intrigued by bamboo for erosion
and giant groves for pleasure.

Here Tim and his younger
brother Mark stand in front of one of our P. nuda groves.
This grove covers around 1000 square feet currently. This
species is cold hardy to -20 degrees Fahrenheit and has dark
green canes and foliage.

 
Above is one of 5 groves of P. nigra Henon 'Giant Gray' we
have planted. This giant grows to nearly 5 inches in diameter
and well over 60 feet tall. New canes are bluish gray with small
delicate leaves. Mark and Tim both went with 15 gallon sizes
of 'Giant Gray'. They also took home some Giant Japanese
bambusoides 'Slender Crookstem' and beautiful 'Spectabilis'.


  From the 10 foot elevated
walkway, 18 different species can be viewed. Shrub bamboo such
as I. tessellatus and Palmata  have reached their mature sizes of 7
to 12 feet. Phyllostachys vivax, P. viridis 'Robert Young' and many
others such as 'Yellow Groove' and 'Moso' tower overhead from 35
to 60 feet tall.


March 13th.
 
Today was another wide open day for us. We had scheduled guests drive up from
Mobile, Alabama. Also, the early morning loading of the 66 divisions going to
Houston, Texas. Below are pictures of some of today's activities.

I begin around 4:20 am  preparing the UPS mail order processing that has to be
done every morning. By 8:30 we were loading the first of the order
that Roger and Russell are delivering to Texas.

 

Above left is the front of the trailer where two rows of bamboo have been
loaded. Above right, shows Roger Jr. loading two additional rows.


 

Above is the front of the trailer loaded 5 rows high. To the right,
Roger and Russell stand a little tired at the back of the loaded trailer.

 

Load completed and ready to roll, they departed at 10:20 am, leaving out on the 1400
plus mile journey to Tuesday's scheduled delivery. Our customer selected his bamboo
and scheduled this delivery a mere nine days ago! We are pleased we are able to
accommodate many large orders on a tight time frame. We have a vast number of
stabilized divisions potted and while we have a large turnover, we still maintain several
thousand of these beautiful plants ready to go any time of the year.

Also today, our customers arrived at 10:00 am for their scheduled visit.

George and Lucy live around 15 miles off the Gulf of Mexico in Mobile,
Alabama. They selected several of the  Phyllostachys edulis or 'Moso' in the
15 gallon containers. These will produce the nice walk through groves they
wanted. For the privacy screening they went with two different varieties. The
P. rubromarginata was chosen for the tall screening bamboo. For an under story
planting within the rubromarginata grove they will plant Semiarundinaria
okuboi. The okuboi loves to be planted within a larger timber bamboo and will
produce a thick privacy screen from the ground up to 16 feet.

  

They really seemed to enjoy the visit and loved all the bamboo. Below, they
stand in front of the bamboo they selected. They went home with 25 beautiful
bamboo specimens to start their groves. The Moso bamboo already had 4 to 6
new bamboo canes emerging in each container they chose. Lucy also picked up
a couple 3 gallon containers of Pl. linearis shown in the above right photo.

      

We hope their trip home was a safe one. Lucy said she will email us pictures
of their bamboo in its new home soon.



March 9th.
 
Many of our bamboo species are beginning to put up their Spring shoots. Hopefully,
we will not have but a couple more cold snaps before Winter is over. The order and
delivery, I mentioned on the 7th., is now ready to go on Monday. This is a fairly
large order and will consist of 66 large divisions. Below are photos of the 'Giant Gray'
Henon, P. rubromarginata and P. aurea 'Golden'. All are 10 and 15 gallon sizes for
a landscaper in Spring, Texas right outside Houston.


Above left shows two rows of 15 each. Above right and below, Roger stands
beside another double row containing 36 more divisions. All these divisions
had to be in the 12 to 16 foot height range for conformity. These will be
used in large planters in climate zone 8.

 

Above and below you can see the root ball sizes. Our little dog, Prissy, checks
out the bamboo. We removed these from  15 gallon containers this morning
and wrapped them in untreated burlap. The bamboo will be planted with the
burlap in place which will deteriorate in 2 to 3 weeks.

  Roger and Russell will leave out
Monday for the 1400 mile trip and will be gone several days. They will be missed
as we have four customers scheduled for tours and picking up bamboo orders
here Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. We generally have a full staff when customers visit,
but this order had to be completed and delivered on the 14th. With very little
notice on this order, we all will have to work a little harder to accommodate everyone.


March 7th.
 
Our 30 gallon containers of Moso have new shoots (canes) emerging. Many of these
shoots appear to be in the one inch or larger diameter range. Most all the Indocalamus
and several other ground cover bamboo species have begin to put up new shoots.

We confirmed another large delivery late yesterday. This one will take us off to Houston,
Texas again. This will be our third trip to Texas this year. This landscaper has a tight
time frame and we were happy to accommodate his needs. We will be loading next
Monday with delivery on Tuesday. There will be several species in the 10 and 15 gallon
sizes and I will post photos of this delivery soon. Thanks to all our customers and we
hope you enjoy the photos of our bamboo business.


March 6th.
 
Roger returned late Sunday night from the New Orleans delivery and had the
pictures below of the beautiful home the bamboo went to.

 

Below Roger and Sidney unload the bamboo and carry it to its new home.

 

The 'Giant Gray' Henon will reach mature sizes of 5 inch diameter in the climate
zone of New Orleans. These well established specimens will produce one inch
diameter canes this Spring. They should be in the 16 to 20 foot height range
by early Summer.

   

   

Above are the very pleased new bamboo growers, Michael and his
lovely wife Ann. In this warm climate zone 8, the bamboo will establish
faster then in most sites we deliver to. In a couple years this bamboo
will be quite impressive and very large.

Below are a series of photos of the load that was delivered to New Orleans.
They bought some of the last one hundred and sixty 15 gallon size divisions
of P. nigra Henon we potted up over one year ago. We have just a few
left that have this type rhizome growth.

These show how the bamboo is prepared and loaded.

 
The 'Giant Gray' Henon is removed from the 15 gallon containers it has been
growing in for over one year. Note the great rhizome growth that has grown
around the root ball since November 2004.

 

Once the bamboo root balls have been wrapped in untreated burlap they are
loaded into the truck. The specimens were 12 to 14 feet in height and weigh
around 100 pounds each.



The bamboo is carefully placed and then the heavy tarp is pulled over the entire
plant.

 

Above show how the tarp i