Cat bamboo

A dry morning, so I spent a couple of hours on the litter trail - some interesting items today, including a pair of pretty cotton socks and a blue and white gentleman's handkerchief, the handkerchief, that is, not the gentleman!

Later, having borrowed a bit of glasshouse space from my neighbour John, seeing as my glasshouse is still a glassless house, I offered to do a bit of cleaning up in there for him, as he's getting on a bit and unable or unwilling to sort it out. I wanted to put a few plants in there to keep them out of the cold and wet this winter. So I took a few barrow loads over the road and made a bit of space. I doubt if anything's been cleaned up in 30 years!

While sorting out my plant crates to make better use of the space caused by some of the plants going to the temporary new homes I was having a look at this bamboo, a plant I grew from seed and intended to plant out at Arduaine. It's Phyllostachys edulis, otherwise known as Moso, a native of China. In the wild it can grow to 92ft, but it's unlikely to reach a fraction of that here, not being too hardy either. When I returned to Arduaine a couple of years after retiring I went to see how this potted plant was faring, and found it had been cut right down to the pot. I brought it home with me and it's put on a fait bit of growth since then. Here's my assistant gardener Susie checking it out!