I've had this black bamboo in the same spot (deep shade, near-ish a willow tree and laurel hedge!) for 5 years, and for the first 4 years, it did great. This year, however, it has struggled. Looks sickly, brown leaves, etc. It formed these prickly/fuzzy leaves that look like they're about the reveal new leaves, but they refuse to leave the plant; it's been like this for a few months. I thought maybe it didn't have enough water, so i watered. I thought maybe too much water, so I left it be. Neither approach worked. I added well composted manure around the base at the start of the season, not too much, not too close. There's a bit of new growth at the bottom. Nothing's completely dying. Do I need to move it? Prune it? I love the plant, hoping it can be resurrected! thanks in advance
When bamboo flowers, all of the culms (canes) usually die, and this happens simultaneously to all of the plants of that species. I know that some bamboos resprout from their roots after a blooming event, but I don't know if that applies to your species.
Flowering behavior varies with species, for instance it's not always the end of the specimen. And there is a moso (Phyllostachys edulis) plant in bloom somewhere most of the time. With all other individuals not in bloom at the same time.
Douglas Justice, in his blog at March 2019 in the Garden - UBC Botanical Garden, mentioned the mass flowering phenomenon, which Black Bamboo: Care and Growing Guide (thespruce.com) says applies to Phyllostachys nigra.: "This bamboo species is a gregarious flowering bamboo, which means that every black bamboo plant around the world will bloom around the same time. This only happens every 40 to 60 years, and that generation of bamboo dies shortly after." Whether or not all the black bamboo plants will flower now, it seems the ones that are flowering are supposed to die. That article on The Spruce page goes on to say "The seeds can be collected and planted to start a new stand of bamboo growth." I guess it's time to try to get flower photos at UBCBG.
P. nigra is a color variant of P. nigra henonis, with this archaic botanical naming being the reverse of the actual genetic situation. In that Henon bamboo is the wild parental species with black bamboo being a horticulturally maintained aberration. And in addition to black bamboo a galaxy of other departures from plain green culms has been known to appear among resulting seedlings when Henon bamboo has flowered in the past. With more than one exemplifying clonal cultivar having been grown in western countries including at least several black bamboos as well as Bory bamboo (brown cloud patterns) and Meguro bamboo (dark brown grooves). With a representative of the latter having been flowering for perhaps a few years now on a property a friend rents in Snohomish County, Washington State. The last time I looked at this planting a tiny percentage of the top had converted to flowers; I do not know if it has gone mostly to blooming since then. But notice the same general timing as the pauls plant. Meanwhile a black bamboo that came with the property I currently reside on is not flowering.
So @pauls14325561 can have a little bit of hope, then. Let us know! And I might not find flowers at UBCBC.
I emailed the friend, the 'Meguro' is about 10% in bloom with there having been a greater involvement last year. A black bamboo on the same growing site is not blooming. They saw various other black bamboos elsewhere in the area flower fully last year.