The Story Behind the Death of NorthPark’s Bamboo

Right now, perhaps even as you are reading this, Nancy Nasher and her husband David Haemisegger are shopping for flora to replace the black bamboo that once so gracefully grew in their compluvium. The couple owns NorthPark Center. If you’ve spent time in the serene food court there, then you know what a compluvium is. It’s the glass room in the center, open to the sky. When the food court opened last summer, the compluvium was graced by rare black bamboo (or, if you prefer, Phyllostachys nigra) growing in pots, 25 feet tall. But last summer—big surprise—was hot. And black bamboo prefers partial shade. By late winter, it was clear the grass wasn’t going to survive, so it was returned to a grower in Florida to convalesce. We wish it a speedy recovery. And to Nancy and David: we hear crape myrtles are hard to kill.