This week’s photo challenge from the Daily Post has my head reeling. Growth, particularly in plants, fascinates me – it’s the repressed farmer in me, I think. Anyway, I can’t resist the excuse to post this series of photographs I have been collecting of the phases of growth of the giant bamboos in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya.
It was only the other day that I was able to capture a decent image of the first knobby shoots, when I went for a walk after lunch in the Gardens.
At about 18 inches the dark, aubergine knobs become delicate pink candles outlined with frilly purple spikes.
I love this shoot – about a metre tall at this stage – it reminds me of a sort of avant-garde Carmen Miranda sculpture.
When the shoots begin to harden, their salmon pink sheathes peel away to reveal delicate brushed steel stalks
This still life with pink shoots caught my attention the other day also
Several clumps – this size and larger – line the banks of the Mahaweli River that almost encircles the Gardens. I noticed quite a lot of wind damage this week, but the clumps are as healthy and vigorous as ever.
Interesting
Thank you Louise.
What a fantastic plant. The bamboo that I planted in our garden some years ago looks very sad in comparison.
Well, it would be hard to compete with a giant like that!
Amazing!
They are the most amazing plants, Jo, and these giants are so beautiful – everything magnified somehow into superlatives at every phase
Bamboos can be horribly invasive, even pushing up paths. The correct place for them is in a botanic gardens, like yours, where they can be admired and not battled with!
You’re right, Viv – those travelling bamboos are a total pest. These giants would displace a house, if they were of that kind!
Wonderful photos
Amazing plant, isn’t it?
Great post! Thank you so much for showing the growth of bamboo, fascinating!
I think they’re amazing too – have a couple of smaller types here and whenever a new shoot appears I follow its growth avidly, but they’re not as dramatic as those giants in the Botanic Gardens.
Enjoyed reading your post and your photos are wonderful.
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
Thank you Francine – it’s very kind of you.
Great growth progression photos!
I’ve been taking pictures of these bamboos for years, so it was good to have an excuse to show them, especially as I got a few new ones just this week when I was there.
The bamboo is impressive. I like the way last one shows us the scale of the trunks by placing a person in the frame. Those bamboo shoots look like Pine tree trunks!
Allan
Glad you got the full picture, Allan – photographs can be a bit misleading sometimes, when you’re talking of scale. There’s a clump a bit further up the hill by a little lake that must be 30 – 40 feet across – just enormous!
Ditto to the comment I left on your last post . . . exotic!
Exotic, and so strangely beautiful, i think.
Very nice! I recently saw bamboo shoots growing in a garden on the west coast of British Columbia and was very impressed. That was just “normal” sized bamboo. I’d love to see the giants!
Were they growing them for food production, Terri? i’d like to see that.
Yes, these giants are something else, that’s for sure.
Oh no, it was it a botanical garden. I’ve just never seen the new growth up close before. I took photos, but they’re not as good as yours.
Sorry you disn’t get to eat the shoots! I love that the plant is so hardy, versatile and useful – except for those ‘running’ varieties which can take over the place like a malevolent worm, burrowing through everything
I wish it would grow here, but our winters are too harsh. Sometimes they are too harsh for the plants that should survive here, but the ones that survive are that much more special!
I can imagine. I never understood how anything survived the winter when I lived in Canada (myself included!)
I really enjoyed this post
Thank you, Northern – I appreciate your letting me know
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As a child I became fascinated with bamboo and tried to find out how it worked. Of course there was no internet back then so I couldn’t “google” it (imagine that). I’d forgotten about that, as a child will move on to the next curiosity, until I read this post. You made the magic of bamboo very vivid in this kids mind.
Fabulous! I’m so glad to have been a catalyst, Michelle.
Ah bamboo – I just love the stuff. Nicely done.
Thank you fotograffer – it’s a tremendous plant, isn’t it?
bamboo is amazing, we had some in our garden in Zambia
This giant stuff, or a couple of inches across stuff? I have a couple in my garden that give me great pleasure, but not so dramatic as the giant!
I’ve always loved the look of it, and the sound of the wind in the leaves and clacking stalks, and am so excited about what they’re doing with bamboo laminates and things these days.
it looks amazing, a living artwork ….. our giant bamboo did not survive, not only too cool but nibbling marsupials finished it off … you could enter this in jake’s challenge Splendid too!
So sad about your giant – but i guess plants, like people, need what they need and there’s no point trying to force them to go where they’re unhappy! I’d never thought of it for Jake’s – bit of a cheek, seeing I’ve already entered it!
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This is gorgeous – what huge, fat buds! In Jamaica we have a lot of bamboo growing wild too, but not this variety. I find bamboo quite magical – a bamboo grove on a hillside is so beautiful.
I agree – so graceful. I love the sound of it – from rustling leaves to clacking stems (these giant ones clack!) – and that it’s so usefull and fast growing too
WOW! These are so beautiful photographs, especially the second one fascinated me with the contrast of the colours. Thank you, love, nia
The pink and aubergine colours are extraordinary, aren’t they? So glad you enjoyed seeing the pictures Nia
Bamboo grows like weeds here. At our last house, the neighbours’ bamboo came under the wall and through the brickpaving in our driveway. It could grow 6 inches overnight.
Oh yes, it has a phenomenal growth rate, especially that malevolent creeping variety!
Exciting growth of nature. Beautiful post!
Many thanks for your support
I’m backing in to posts I didn’t get to over the weekend, and I’m so glad I didn’t miss this one. Beautiful! I love the pink color on the shoots; I can see a frothy long dress in that color. Repressed farmer? Really?
The colours made me think of a very sophisticated modern sari – just stunning!
Yes, regressive gene, from all those Scottish crofters on Ma’s side
Bamboo gets a lot of bad press but it is an interesting and magnificent) not to mention useful) plant
Great shots from shoot to full growth.
Thanks Ella. Shame people don’t discriminate between the clumping and crawling varieties, because it is an incredible plant, and as you said, so useful – and becoming more so all the time with new technologies
The tender bamboo shoots are delicious!
Superb shots! Did you click these just for this challenge?
Looks like it, doesn’t it? I was captivated by those pink shoots with the aubergine tufts years ago and have been collecting shots of them ever since – but I did get a couple of real goodies this time when I was up in Kandy, especially the bulbous new shoots.
Really interesting! Bamboo shoots are tasty.
Aren’t they just? Though not sure whether these giants would be ok to eat