Bamboo v. Knotweed

[NeilV]

When people say bees are working bamboo, do they really mean bamboo or do they mean Japanese knotweed?

[BULLSEYE BILL]

When I bought some real bamboo for my last house the information I got said that bamboo will only bloom once every, I believe it was seven years, and oddly enough it blooms worldwide at the same time. Doesn't sound right, but that was the story I got.

Supposedly it makes a lot of honey when it blooms.

[Dundrave]

Least around here it is knotweed, horrid stuff, unless you are looking for honey.

[ScadsOBees]

That is a good question since I think that knotweed is call bamboo sometimes. Depends what is growing in your area.

I don't think bamboo survives around here in MI (haven't seen any pandas around). So here it is knotweed.

I think bamboo isn't such a pleasant plant to have either...I've heard that it is very difficult to control as well.

Rick

[BULLSEYE BILL]

I had to move to get away from it. :( If you plant bamboo, get the clumping type and use the correct barriers. It's no fun mowing it and then having to walk on the stumps.

It will also cross wide areas and start growing again taking up large areas. It can be a nightmare.

[berkshire bee]

True bamboo doesn't grow around here.We're lucky to have plenty of Japanese knotweed growing along the road and other places where the bees can get to it but it isn't invading our yards. It's one of at least two things I can think of that you don't want to plant in your yard. Two others are spearmint and gooseneck loosestrife.

[Hobie]

and garlic mustard and virgina creeper.

[NeilV]

I am definitely not planting either bamboo or knotweed. I just did not understand how the real bamboo, which is a grass I think, made nectar. I have a friend who bought a house with the real kind of bamboo and he could not control or kill it. He was joking that he was thinking about pouring a concrete slab over the stuff to kill it.

Around here, Virginia Creeper I think is just a native plant that pops up all by itself. It is hard to get rid of, but not as bad as trumpvine. I have tried to dig out some trumpetvine roots and those dudes go deep.

[ScadsOBees]

Virginia creeper don't bother me too much. I too have a trumpet vine. So far it isn't getting out of control too much, but I've dug an pulled a LOT of it up. I'm not sure what's worse...the #@$ trumpet vine or the #@$#@! mulberries that the neighbors let grow all over the place!

And I have yet to see a trumpet flower...:mad:

Rick

[CSShaw]

It is probably the same plant just called "bamboo". True bamboo is a grass family plant, while i believe knotweed is really a member of the same family as is buckwheat, to be sure you can reference ABJ. At any rate, in the NW the plant in question (herbaceous perennial in the Buckwheat Family that grows to 3 metres ...Polygonum L.) produces a low quality honey that is of a greenish cast, foul tasting and one of the few NW honeys that will ferment rather quickly. The plant is a noxious weed nearly everwhere.

On a medical trip to Eugene Oregon over the last two weeks i watched a large number of bees coming from every direction of bee line to one clump of this stuff next to where i was staying. The white tassled flowers (greenish white) bloomed over a two week period and drew honey and bumblebees from dawn until dusk. Along the road on the way home to Washington i noted this weed had huge colonies along the freeway in and under native bushes.

Chrissy

[Jeffrey Todd]

Welcome back to Beesource, Chrissy!

[CSShaw]

It really is good to be back.

Chrissy