Join ABS and help spread the word of bamboo’s vast potential.
The Fall ABS Convention will be hosted by the Southeast Chapter.
30 Sep 2021 – 3 Oct 2021 Perry, Georgia
Thursday, September 30, 2021
Spend the day at Bamboo Farming USA, owned by Daphne Lewis, in Hawkinsville GA. The farm has eleven major bamboo plantings, each 7 years old, and many smaller plantings of various ages.
Mingle with bamboo people, listen to speakers, eat lunch and dinner, and wander the farm. In addition to speakers & panel sessions, there will be grove tours, charcoal making and perhaps pole hauling by steers (bovines). Thomsen Bamboo is located at the farm. Tom will be there to demonstrate using bamboo–from the pole to candle to charcoal. Bring items for the silent auction. Set up a booth if you like. Meals will be catered at the farm.
Friday, October 1, 2021
We will be visiting the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historic Park, which has an ongoing program to revive and replant the native Canebrake collection along the river and wetlands. We can walk the beautiful grounds to see cane used in ancient ceilings and walls. Next tour the historic USDA germplasm collection for bamboo at the Fruit and Tree Nut Research Laboratory in Byron GA, where we will talk with Mike Hotchkiss, scientist and bamboo lover, and Melanie Harrison-Dunn, curator of grasses for USDA. Final stop is at Robby Russell’s mature bamboo groves in Fort Valley. Admire the huge Vivax aureocaulis grove; see a henon grove that flowered three years ago and walk through a mature moso grove and a praecox grove.
Saturday, October 2, 2021
We begin at the Moso grove of Tobaris Holmes in Unadilla. Tobaris and his family will show you the grounds and talk of “learning from mistakes” and future plans.
Visit the home of Kay and Jaap Kopperdrayer in Odum, GA. The Koppedrayers build and sell traditional bamboo arrows and bows. Jaap is a renowned maker of bamboo bows both traditional Japanese or any style. We will tour their groves and they will demonstrate their modern Taiwanese bamboo processing machines for splitting poles and planing the split for perfect lamination.
Conference Registration Will Begin Soon - Vaccination against COVID is required to attend
Visit Our Commercial Members!
The Emergence of Bamboo
The American Bamboo Society was formed in 1979 and is the standard bearer of this increasingly important plant in North America. Today, the ABS has members living throughout the U.S. and in many other countries and since 1980, has successfully introduced many new species of bamboo to the United States.
American Bamboo Society
Bamboo Magazine
The official quarterly magazine of the ABS. All types of bamboo-related material can be found in BAMBOO; how-to articles on growing and propagation, reports of newly discovered species, book reports, event announcements, articles by bamboo artists and musicians, travelogues, and letters to the editor. Please join us, receive BAMBOO Magazine, and support the work of the ABS.
Become an ABS Member
The ABS has members throughout the world! Membership in the American Bamboo Society and one ABS chapter is for 12 months and includes a subscription to the quarterly Bamboo Magazine and annual Journal.