I bought this plant a couple years ago it was beautiful full of culms and leaves. I planted it in the ground (zone 6a) and after several months I transplanted it to a better location that receives more afternoon shade. It didn't seem happy there either so I ended up digging it up and have had it in a pot. It's lost all leaves and I've cut the culms to a few inches tall. I've got it in good soil with compost but I am not seeing any signs of growth. When I dug it up the last time I got a really good look at the root ball and the roots seem very healthy and compact but there wasn't a bunch of stringy roots attached, so I don't know if the roots are actually healthy or not. They definitely were not mushy or rotted at all. I'm just wondering if it's gonna grow again. I paid over $75 for it so I wanted to use it as a privacy screen but that has obviously not worked out. Any advice or steps that I could take to help? It would be greatly appreciated. Again, I live in Topeka Kansas zone 6.

I don't know how much I say will translate to warmer zones, few people up here in Minnesota even try to grow bamboo. but this is what I have found after working with F. rufa for ten plus years.

Anything less than a five culm clump isn't worth attempting to transplant. As a general rule, clumping bamboos protest transplanting, anyway. Here, where it is very cold, foliage dies back to the snowline with culms badly compromised. No snow that stays through the winter means they eventually die back to the ground. BUT, if I cut back to the ground everything that seems dead, I most likely kill the whole plant. If I leave it alone, it will grow back with new culms. I've learned not to cut any of the dead stuff down until new culms are at least a foot high and with some leaves.

Hope yours makes it; I dunno.

Thanks for responding. I was told to cut the culms back because they were apparently "dead" so that's why I did it. Lesson learned. I guess I was assuming that it would be hardy enough that as long as the roots were happy it would grow back again in spring. I'll try to keep this updated after time goes by and I'm able to tell if it's survived or not. Thank you again for your reply!

I never thought it would make a difference, either. The culms always look dead DEAD DEAD to me. There are a few other plants like this, though.... Agastache is one of them. Many of them, you can cut them back, but if you go to within a few inches of the ground in the fall, you are liable to kill it.

I couldn't tell you if this goes for all the bamboos; I've only grown F. rufa and F. nitida. My nitida wanted to bloom the year the species bloomed throughout the world, but my growing season is too short. It made it through the ensuing winter, but just got worse through the spring and then died.