Author Archives: Henry Gomez

Esquire Male Grooming Salon

Esquire Male Grooming Salon is located on Park Road in the heart of Milton’s café precinct. It is run by Mark Rabone, an awesome guy with a vision. He wants men of all sizes, shape and colour to look good. Scratch that – not good, but great!

The ambience is one of laid back relaxedness. The salon plays continuous house , dance and lounge grooves. You are always invited to a coffee, beer or juice while your hair follicles get pampered. The staff are awesome too, and switched on, and they definitely know what they are doing. I come here on a regular basis for a chat and a haircut, and I always leave with a feeling of renewed satisfaction as I look so fresh and so clean.

You can also purchase American Crew hair care products for men. They make quality products that smell very manly – you are bound to make women’s heads turn as you walk past.

So go ahead, make the trip to Milton. You won’t be disappointed.

Esquire Male Grooming Salon

The staff are awesome and bubbly

Mark’s entourage is always up for a good laugh

Levi, mum and dad

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Propagating Gracilis Bamboo – 101

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Dear reader, if you are after detailed instructions on how to successfully propagate Gracilis bamboo from cuttings, this is the link you are after: How to successfully propagate Gracilis bamboo from cuttings as I have managed to grow new Gracilis from cuttings after numerous trials. The instructions in this page were not that good and the rate of success was none.

Or you may like to read the entire dickhead neighbour story and ongoing saga at: this new site dedicated to stupid neighbours.

I have finally managed to successfully propagate my very own Bambusa Textilis var. Gracilis! I obtained some culms from a friend and I now have some leaves that have started to bud and very tiny root systems.

It is only fair that I share my findings, but I have to give a lot of credit to Shawn Gilbert who was absolutely instrumental in providing the key points to a successful propagation.

I have currently got a 40% success rate – but this was my first attempt using Shawn’s technique and I have to confirm it works! I am still a little unsure about the exact science as this bamboo has proven to be a difficult plant to propagate. I should also say I didn’t use root hormone (I was too busy cutting the bamboo like mad)

Here are the important points to note:

When you first cut the culms, put them in a bucket full of some type of richgrow liquid formula. I used “Seasol” diluted in water and soaked the culms for 2 to 3 hours (it is a seaweed fertiliser rich in nitrogen – grass loves nitrogen)
You must use old culms, the older the better
Try to find culms with a diameter larger than 1″
I found culms with large buttons at the nodes had a better success rate than nodes with no buttons (this is for the 2 node cuttings)
Water the culms every day (ensure that you fill the culm with water) for the first month and a half
Pick the right time… I planted my culms in the middle of May (Southern Hemisphere = winter)

I have searched the internet for bamboo propagation via culm cuttings and identified two types of cuts that can be used. One cut has 2 nodes, and the other cut only has 1 node and all of the branches coming out of the node have been cut back – all except for the main one (as per Shawn’s website).
It took 2 weeks for the first leaves to appear, but at the 1 month mark, tiny branches were popping out of the buttons at the nodes .

Single node cutting – new leaf is sprouting (1 month mark)

Two node cuttings – 1 month mark

Single branch at a single node cutting – 1 month mark

More branches popping out

Small button at a node – ready to pop out (2 months mark)

Single node cutting with one branch. See the new leaf?

Double node with branches appearing – 2 month mark

More double node cuttings

Few bamboo cuttings in one pot

I also noticed the culms that stayed green after the 1.5 month mark would be successful as they had leaves pop out soon after.

We are now getting to the 2 month mark and I pulled one of the culms out to see if it had roots. The photos below show a thin, long and stringy roots.

Single node bamboo - no roots at the branch

Notice how the culm is still green even after 2 months in the ground?

Bud appearing at the on the single branch

Bud appearing on the single branch – note: there are no roots at single node.

I am going to leave the culms in the pots a couple of months longer and wait for spring to swing by.

Update: 19th May 2016 – these cuttings all dried and died after months of watering.

But this page: How to successfully propagate Gracilis bamboo from cuttings has instructions that actually worked!

Vivid Sydney 2013

Vivid Sydney 2013 – I am not really sure how long the beautiful city of Sydney has been putting on the Vivid festival, but I’m so glad I managed to find myself right in the thick of it. It was a photographer’s paradise. Everywhere you turned, people had brought their DSLR’s, SLR’s, medium format camera’s, TLR’s, compact cameras, tripods, tablets and mobiles… Lucky for me, I’d brought two of my favourite lenses – my Minolta MC ROKKOR-PG 58mm f/1.2 and my ARAX Photex T&S 35mm f/2.8mm.

It was a light party and a feast for the eyes. A myriad, no wait – a googolplex! No, not quite… It was a million, billion, gazillion photons all thrown in a synchronised, cadenced, visual cacophony.

I do love coming to Sydney and seeing the Darling harbour and Circular Quay. Sydney in all of your grandiose glory you always impress me, but especially this time. I must thank you for really putting on truly memorable show. Hopefully, and fingers crossed, I will be able to make it to Vivid Festival 2014.