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When I’m talking to clients about plants there is one name that can generate real animosity, but in many cases it is both misplaced & misjudged…. & the innocent party? … the mighty bamboo. “It’s invasive…” they cry, “…it’ll take over…”, but wait. Why damn a fantastically varied & versatile plant when there is only one really bad apple in its’ ranks. Sasa palmate f. nebulosa will spread far & grow through drives, patios & pond liners. A nasty vicious thug with no redeeming features whatsoever, its ranks alongside Leylandii conifers as a plant that will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.
The key to enjoying bamboo rather than fighting them is in selection & management. If you select an appropriate species for the situation & remove canes at the correct time of the year then you should have an entirely amicable relationship with this excellent family of plants. Small bamboos that are no more than 1m high tend to be described as invasive but if they are regularly cut back or root pruned then they can be successfully ‘garden trained’. Pleioblastus auricomis is a golden variegated plant that adds a light focal point & will take strimming every 3 or 4 years to rejuvenate the foliage & limit outward growth. Pleioblastus varigatus is white striped but can be treated the same. Late in the summer Shibataea kumasasa throws up zebra striped shoots, which, if they are straying out of the desired area, can be easily removed as they are not yet woody. Size & structure are two of the major pluses with the larger bamboo species. Also be ready to tackle some of the longest & most awkward Latin names that the Linnaean scholars give to plants. Semiarundinaria fastuosa is an instant giant with canes growing to 4m very quickly. It tends to invasiveness but again, if you spot the canes surfacing away from the clump remove underground & either grow on as a root cutting or toss on the bonfire. The classic bamboo cane that holds up most of the nations runner bean harvest comes from the genus Phyllostachys. The larger species of Phyllostachys can produce canes up to 5m high with a diameter of 75mm in a warm damp environment, but others can be reliably used in most gardens without taking over. The great thing about the clump forming Phyllostachys like nigra & aurea is that they can provide screening that is at a fixed height does not need hedge cutting, but will also not remove all semblance of light like the ubiquitous conifer. Again, management of wayward shoots in the late spring is the key to keeping them under control. All bamboos like plenty of water & if they have room to spread the Phyllostachys species vivax & bambusoides provide excellent lakeside stands of canes. Other larger bamboos with more finely defined foliage & canes that are good garden plants include (deep breath) Himalayacalamus falconeri, Thamnocalamus crassinodus 'Kew Beauty', Yushiana anceps, Fargesia nitida & most beautiful, (& most difficult to find) Qiongzhuea tumidifolia. The latter is known as the walking stick bamboo & has wonderful knobbly canes. One more species worth a mention is the Chilean bamboo, Chusquea culeou, a magnificent arching bamboo with attractive canes but unfortunately only suitable for the bigger garden. It is possible to find the more common species of large bamboo in large pot sizes imported from the Mediterranean in garden centres, & priced at between £80 to £150 for a 3 to 4m specimen they are good value for money. You will have to avoid the larger, more commercial garden centres as I have seen their specimens priced at over £300. Smaller pots are cheaper but the more unusual species will set you back £20 to £30 for a 2l specimen. Plantsmen still don’t fully understand bamboo reproduction but once many of the bamboo species flower, they die. They do produce hundreds of seeds that will enable you to replace the plants you’ve lost, but that is no comfort if you have just purchased a £300 specimen. The life of a Phyllostachys can be over a hundred years, but if your Phyllostachys is grown from a root cutting then it will only live as long as the parent. Strangely it seems to know that it only has so long to live, when the parent dies, the cuttings die simultaneously. Seed grown specimens live the full length of time expected. The best sources are specialist nurserymen who eat, live & breathe bamboos, & if you look on the RHS website plantfinder at www.rhs.org/rhsplantfinder/plantfinder.asp you’ll be directed to a section on finding nurseries. |
