Tropical Bamboo Nursery & Gardens

04/13/2026

10/29/2025

https://www.mounts.org/event/fall-plant-sale-family-fun-weekend/2025-11-01/

Ease into your morning with the soothing sounds of pianist Barbara Gomulka. A Florida-born artist known for her smooth and romantic instrumental style, Barbara’s music creates a serene atmosphere.

10/21/2025

Baw Bamboo Farm, Ranong, Thailand

10/20/2025

Arrived in Bangkok Monday morning with the two boxes of bamboos.
I messaged a friend (Kenny) at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. He brought the house car to shuttle me and the bamboos to a FedEx service point that I’ve used previously.
First, we stopped at the hotel so I could print the FedEx shipping labels that were on my laptop.
At the same time, another friend (Stewie from Kool Bamboo, Miami), who’s now living in Chiang Mai, messaged me that he was arriving in Bangkok in an hour.
We waited in the hotel lobby for Stewie, then the three of us escorted the boxes of bamboos to FedEx. No problems there.
Stewie, Kenny, and I then made a pit stop at a bar. The next two days will involve more of that (drinking). I’ll head home Wednesday evening.
The boxes haven’t yet left Thailand but they are at the airport. Tomorrow morning, they should be on their way to Alaska, then the FedEx hub in Memphis. Delivery to the USDA APHIS could be Wednesday, but no later than Thursday morning.

This process (shipping) rarely goes smoothly. I suppose the boxes still can be rejected at the airport, and returned to me. So far, everything looks good to go.

I wrote a creative contents description on the waybill. I purposely did not use the words ‘live plants’ or even the word ‘bamboo’.
I kept it simple: ‘cane samples for testing’. I stuffed handfuls of dried bamboo culm sections in each box. Also, I bought a bunch of bamboo brooms from a street vendor (25 cents each!) and put those in each box. I do need to give the USDA folks a heads-up about the brooms!

10/20/2025

Drove to Surat Thani Airport this morning and waited a bit to drop off my pickup truck. Open 8:00 AM, the sign said. No drop box for the key.
The rental agents stumbled in around 8:12 and took their time inspecting the truck for damage. My flight departs at 9:30 AM so I wasn’t too annoyed.
In the terminal, my boxes of bamboos were too long for the baggage check conveyor. I was told by a gate agent to “follow me”. We walked outside and behind the terminal with the boxes on a cart. I’m thinking (hoping) I’d get to load the aircraft myself. No such luck, but I did get them on the bed of a pickup truck that drove the boxes to the aircraft.

10/19/2025

Day two collecting was a bamboo-lover’s dream. Started early as I splurged (48 bucks!) and spent the night at a boutique hotel just a few miles from Baw Bamboo Variegated Farm.
Baw collects and grows only the most ornate and unusual bamboos. Some were wild-collected. Most are seedling mutations or hybrids from bamboos that have flowered in Thailand over the past 15-20 years. Dendrocalamus, Gigantochloa, Schizostacyum, and Bambusa are represented - sometimes together, as crosses.
Ten more species brings the total to 19. Two boxes are packed. I’m flying those up to Bangkok in the morning.
Hopefully, I can get the boxes on their way to the USDA without too much hassle from the carriers.
This part of the game’s never easy.

10/18/2025

Productive Saturday!
Nine new bamboos dug, cleaned, packaged. Most of these bamboos are variegated varieties of fairly common bamboo species) like Dendrocalamus asper).
Started at 8:00, finished by 12:30.
Paison and I had lunch before I had to head off to Ranong. Long drive across the peninsula (4.5 hours). I’m on the Indian Ocean side now.
Tomorrow (Sunday), I’ll try to add to my haul as I visit another garden with more ornamental bamboos. By mid-day, I should be driving back across to Surat Thani, where I’ll catch a Monday morning flight up to Bangkok (with boxes of bamboo plants checked as baggage). The boxes will go by FedEx or DHL to the USDA APHIS to spend a year or so in jail (quarantine).
I’ve already created FedEx shipping labels and there was/is a Trump tax (tarriff) that’s based on my declared value. Ironically, I use the USDA account numbers for FedEx or DHL. The Federal government pays for international shipping and all related duties/fees.

BTW, for White Lotus fans…the Four Seasons resort where the last season was filmed is just offshore in Surat Thani.
I’ll keep my eye out for Walton…

10/16/2025

Leila’s impressed with our largest bamboo - Dendrocalamus giganteus

10/04/2025

https://youtu.be/KTbXmypiwUI?si=XT5p8GK-v27Wyn7F

Jesse Durko passed away unexpectedly this week (October 2nd). This wonderful video was made just five months ago, and incredibly, in it, Jesse provides his own epitaph.
Jesse Durko's Nursery was established in 1994, in Davie, FL, after Jesse moved on from designing and maintaining Flamingo Gardens.
I first met Jesse at an American Bamboo Society meeting at Fairchild Tropical Gardens. Jesse was helping us move our USDA quarantine greenhouse from FTG Miami to Broward Community College, near his nursery. We became friends and occasionally collaborated when I established Tropical Bamboo Nursery as a backyard hobby in 1997 (Broward County), and then as a full-time operation in 2002 (Palm Beach County).
In 2006, Jesse asked me to visit his nursery to help him identify a bamboo. The bamboo was in a small pot and had variegated leaves and occasional white stripes on the culms. I offered Jesse a few species guesses, each of which was shot down by Jesse, "No, it's not that. No, not that either." I asked him where he got the bamboo. "I can't tell you that", said Jesse with a smirk. I knew what the smirk meant so I just asked if he knew the country of origin. "Thailand", he said. I brought the bamboo to my nursery, planted it in the field, and spent a few years trying to identify this Thai bamboo. In the meantime, we named it Bambusa sp. 'Jesse Durko'.
Years later, I found an identical bamboo in Thailand that was labeled Arundinaria suberecta. Arundinaria is a genus that has a leptomorphic rhizome system. The Jesse Durko bamboo has a pachymorphic rhizome. Fortunately, the American Bamboo Society archives references that as a common mistake and corrects the species ID as Bambusa suberecta. I was thrilled to finally solve the bamboo ID mystery and I immediately called Jesse. No answer- left a message. I called the next day - no answer. I drove to his nursery and was told he's traveling. A month later, I stopped by again. Still not there. Finally, I found Jesse at a Mounts Botanical Garden plant show. I shouted, "Jesse, where have you been? I've been to your nursery twice this year, and you're never there." He just smiled and uttered a Jesse-ism that I've since repeated often,
"It's tough to be a legend if you're always around".
The Thai bamboo finally found its species name. Of course, everyone still calls it Jesse Durko Bamboo! We list it as Bambusa suberecta 'Jesse Durko'.
I'll post a photo below of the bamboo in the comments.
I'll forever think of Jesse when I see that Thai bamboo in its glory. Rest in Your Peaceful Garden, Jesse. You won't be around anymore, but you ARE a legend.
Your friend, Robert Saporito

“The garden is my sanctuary for sure, because you can't just walk away from it. You must attend it. It's never finished.”For Jesse Durko, horticulture isn’t ...

10/03/2025

Dendrocalamus giganteus- Tropical Bamboo Nursery & Gardens

09/03/2025

Gigantochloa sp. Starlight Bamboo -
New release. Rare. Spectacular.
We sent this bamboo, from Thailand, to USDA quarantine 10 years ago. It took 37 months to clear, and we received it in 2018.
We imported it as Gigantochloa sp. 'stripe'.
In Thailand, my wife (Sara) did the dirty work - washing soil from the roots, removing leaves, and scrubbing the culms. She had a little pile of clipped-off leaves between her feet and said it looked like Starlight mint candy. We've been calling this unidentified bamboo 'Starlight' ever since.

We have limited plants now available in 3 and 7-gallon containers.

More info here:
https://www.tropicalbamboo.com/bamboo_shopping.asp?bid=297&bamboo=Gigantochloa%20sp.%20Starlight