Muddywellies' Blog

Bamboo 'shock and awe' - dispelling the popular myth

Posted on 16 Jun, 2008 4 comments

“Yesterday (Sunday) was another successful day on behalf of the National Gardens Scheme charity, and another day of listening to visitors exclamations of surprise on seeing the growth of my bamboo. I’ve been growing many different bamboos at Winsford for almost ten years now so I reckon I can speak with some authority on the subject.

Most gardeners in the UK and elsewhere have watched the TV programmes and read the magazine and newspaper articles illustrating the beauty of a recently introduced planting in a garden makeover. Gardeners speak of its spread, of clumping bamboos, growing it in pots and using steel, rubber or plastic skirts in the ground to restrict its growth. I’ve heard them repeated enough times by visitors to appreciate this is the perceived consensus.

Now, I’m going to ‘stick my head above the parapet’ and add my own practical thoughts and experiences of bamboo. So let’s start with a bang and go from there….....

Any author, garden designer, TV presenter or salesman who suggests that bamboo may be restricted by a skirt in the ground is basing their suggestion upon the erroneous presumption that, throughout all the millenia of evolution, bamboo has yet to discover a means to get around a stone in the ground!!

I enclose some photographs below to show what bamboo actually does! The first two examples are simple hoops, while the third shows what a bamboo root will do if it can not return to the ground immediately.

About the only natural bamboo killer in the UK is dehydration, either from wind or from drought conditions, as bamboo will not tolerate being dry indefinitely.

Once bamboo is happy where it is, it will ‘pause’ for around two winters while it gets comfortable. Then, during its third summer, it will begin to spread. The majority of bamboos are shallow rooted, often no deeper than 2 feet (60cms). Its rate of spread is entirely due to its surrounding microclimate, ground conditions, species and maturity. Some bamboos, such as the Chusqueas, root much deeper, around 4 feet deep. Accordingly these will take a little longer to become established, but once done so, they are even harder to remove and even less susceptible to drought.

Below is a photograph of a bamboo shoot that was taken this Monday morning at 08.30. Standing 35 inches high, it first emerged on Thursday morning. Since its now only mid-June, I may confidently predict this will not be largest nor fastest this summer.

This next photograph highlights a clump of bamboo that was originally planted out of picture on the right during the spring of 2000. After four years it reached the right-hand side of this 4ft wide footpath. You can just make out the single shoot that’s beyond the main group on the far left which marks its progress upto 2007. That’s around 25 feet, just five feet short of most patios.

Bamboo is often used as scaffolding in the Far East, that’s because it has a tensile strength of around 50,000 psi. Mild steel is heavier and has a strength of 60,000psi. So it’s not hard to imagine what bamboo will do to the suburban drain network in the future. After all, it only needs to dislodge the ‘O’ ring in modern plastic systems to cause a leak….....

Maybe I am guilty of using ‘shock and awe tactics’, but having never seen such photographs in any national media, I think it’s about time that gardeners everywhere are able to make a considered decision on whether or not to grow bamboo in their garden. Don’t get me wrong, I love my bamboo, it IS a great plant, but you need to go in to it with your eyes wide open and be prepared to monitor it and remove it where necessary.

Especially when one considers that for 40 or more years now in the UK, householders who wished to screen their gardens from their neighbours, have all too often been given just one choice. And when those same householders asked how far apart they should be planted, the response was invariably 3-4 feet. We all know the consequences, but in 40 years time bamboo won’t still be in its original garden”.

This blog is taken from a recent post I made on my own forums in the ‘Garden Perennials’ section where you may see the enclosed photographs.

Comments

Blodyn

17 Jun, 2008

I have a bamboo in a pot and was going to put it in the ground. Now I think I'll leave it in the pot. Thanks for this information.

Grenville

17 Jun, 2008

Our Bamboos are nearly 12 feet tall.They are growing in plastic dustbins with good drainage and are happy being contained.We followed the advice of a friend who is a professional Horticulturalist.They are fed well and kept moist and are providing a spectacular display.They need not become thugs in the garden if they are given the correct conditions for growth and spread, and like all potentailly 'invasive' plants they need to be restrained.

Muddywellies

18 Jun, 2008

That's good news Grenville and 'thank you' for reinforcing my own point, that people need to buy bamboo with their eyes wide open. It shouldn't be bought as an 'impulse buy' like a Fuchsia or Geranium.

I understand from your website that you have a Phyllostachys aureosulcata which at 12ft is half what it is easily capable of. It is also widely available in the UK and North America and very invasive. I wonder how many purchasers of this fine plant have sought the advice of a horticultural expert and planted theirs inside a dustbin ? . . . . . . . .

Susiespearing

10 Jul, 2008

I was always suspicious of the fact that a simple foot deep barrier would stop any plant of that size.Thank goodness I decided not to go down the bamboo route.

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