UGA Cooperative Extension

Bamboo Farm & Coastal Gardens: A Short History

In the years before the Civil War, large landowners developed rice plantations along the banks of the Great Ogeechee and Little Ogeechee Rivers in Chatham and Bryan counties. Here they grew the desirable and valuable rice known as Carolina Gold. Fields, dikes and canals were dug in the low ground along the river where the tidal currents filled, and then drained, the rice field twice a day. Over time, there came to be a chain of great rice plantations all along the Georgia coast. These plantations prospered, their success based on the labor of slaves who kept the fields cleared, the canals and dikes functioning, and the waters flowing in and out at their proper times. On the plantations in Chatham County alone, more than a thousand slaves worked the rice fields. Among these plantations was Vallambrosa, located near what are now Chevis Road and Grove Point Road, off US Highway 17. It is here that the history of the Bamboo Farm begins.
The property that became Vallambrosa plantation was acquired in 1795 by Stephen Elliot of South Carolina who owned several Bryan County properties as well. He gradually added to the tract until it accounted for 1100 acres of rice tide-land and upland forest. In 1827 Elliot sold Vallambrosa to Daniel Blake, another South Carolinian, who also increased the size of the plantation until, by 1834, it measured 2692 acres. Daniel Blake died in 1834 and Vallambrosa came to be the property of his son-in-law Arthur Heyward of South Carolina, who had married Blake’s daughter, Louisa. The Heyward’s were one of the leading rice-planting families of the south Atlantic coast. By 1865 and the end the Civil War, the great rice plantations and their way of life lay in ruins. Some rice continued to be grown by the freedmen of the area, but its cultivation was soon abandoned for less labor intensive, more economically viable crops.

Records are incomplete for the years of Reconstruction but it appears that after the war Vallambrosa was perhaps owned by Andreas E. Moynello, a Cuban by birth. It is possible that Moynello only worked as a rice grower on the plantation for its (unknown) owner. With a reputation as a world traveler as well as rice planter, Moynello is said to have introduced the plant known as giant timber bamboo, Phyllostachys bambusoides, to Vallambrosa after a visit to Japan. Moynello may have gotten his plants from India but it is more likely that the original introduction came from Japan. The bamboo clumps prospered in the climate of Savannah.

In1890, Mrs. Smith, Moynellos’s neighbor, acquired three clumps of Vallambrosa’s giant timber bamboo and planted the clumps behind her farmhouse near the well. She and her brothers owned a 46 acre farm adjacent to Vallambrosa, lying along Ogeechee Road, 14 miles south of Savannah. (This later came to be US Highway 17.) The bamboo thrived, and by 1915, the bamboo grove had spread to occupy about ¾ of an acre, with stalks towering to 50 or 60 feet high. Mrs. Smith later remarried to H. B. Miller. Her employee, Cornell Dayton, lived on the farm and sold bamboo shoots to restaurants as well as selling cut, bamboo poles. The eminent destruction of this flourishing grove by its owners prompted Dayton to contact renowned plant explorer, Dr. David Fairchild in an attempt to interest him in the bamboo and perhaps save the grove. In May of 1915, Dayton wrote to Fairchild - who was with the US Department of Agriculture, Section of Seed and Plant Introduction in Washington, DC - about the large grove of bamboo located 14 miles south of Savannah. Dayton got no response but continued to write to Fairchild. Eventually, Dayton journeyed to Washington and visited Fairchild in his office where he convinced him to take an interest in saving this rare and potentially valuable planting. Dayton indicated that he was 60 years old and knew that the grove had been growing for 30 years. Fairchild contacted a wealthy supporter of his projects, Barbour Lathrop, suggesting that he buy the grove in order to save it. Lathrop agreed to buy the grove and the 46 surrounding acres for $5000 dollars in 1919 and leased the property back to the USDA for one dollar.

Over the years, the Savannah station was used for research into economically important plants and plant products. During the 1940’s, the USDA in cooperation with industrialists Harvey Firestone and Henry Ford began research into the latex content of various plants in hopes of identifying native latex sources suitable for use in the production of rubber. Fields of goldenrod were grown at the Bamboo Farm while dog fennel was cultivated at the Ford Plantation in Richmond Hill. Ultimately, neither plant produced latex in sufficient quantities to make it economically viable and research was discontinued upon the development of synthetic rubber in 1955.Paper-making experiments took place in the early 1940’s. The Herty Foundation, in association with Champion and Scott paper companies, worked to make paper from bamboo pulp from the early 1940’s until 1965 when the US Congress stopped the funding. They were able to make high quality tissue and writing paper from bamboo pulp, but they were unable to make it profitably. Cephalotaxus, yucca and several bamboo varieties were evaluated for their cancer-fighting properties. Kanaf, a tropical grass, was studied as an alternative source of paper and roofing material. Water chestnut farming was explored but labor costs proved prohibitive. During the Vietnam War much of the bamboo was harvested for use by the US Army to create replica Vietnamese villages at Fort Stewart to train soldiers for combat.
In 1975, the USDA began to phase out the research functions of the Bamboo Farm and by 1979 the gates were closed as a government cost cutting measure. Four years later, in 1983, the facility was deeded to the University of Georgia for use as a center for research and education. In recent years the Farm has been used to evaluate improved Bermudagrass varieties for resistance to mole crickets; field trials of conifers, camellias, blueberries have taken place; as have trials of various pesticides and pesticide alternatives for control of insect and weed pests. Some of the earliest trials of the popular ornamental sweet potato vine took place here as did trials of sun-tolerant Caladiums.
In 1994, UGA Cooperative Extension formed an advisory committee and embarked upon an aggressive capital improvement campaign. In 1995, a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization, Friends of the Coastal Gardens, was formed and a Master Plan commissioned. Since 2002, the Bamboo Farm has taken on a larger education and demonstration role. Students in grades pre-K through 5 take part in the Roots & Shoots program which brings science classes for half-day field trips to the Farm. Classes and workshops are taught for Master Gardeners, commercial horticulturalists, and the public. Display gardens are being renovated and developed to showcase well-adapted ornamental plants for coastal Georgia. The Xeriscape Garden developed in conjunction with Dr. Gary Wade of UGA demonstrates water conserving techniques for gardeners. Applied research continues with scientists from UGA and sister institutions such as Armstrong Atlantic State University.

As the Bamboo Farm approaches its 90th birthday, support for the institution grows ever stronger. A core of outstanding volunteers makes much of what happens at BFCG possible, and there is a very active organization - Friends of Coastal Gardens - that provides monetary and volunteer support. New programs are being added and old programs improved. Plant collection development is again underway. Training for professional horticulturists is taking place. Several hundred-thousand dollars of capital investment in infrastructure improvements by UGA has made BFCG a safer, more welcoming place to work and to visit. Strong associations with the Georgia Green Industry Association, the UGA Center for Urban Agriculture, Coastal Master Gardener Association, the Horticulture Department of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, and local schools and colleges underpin the BFCG’s ability to provide the citizens of coastal Georgia with outstanding educational programs, display gardens and plant collections.