Bamboo as a Screen? Which Bamboo is Best for Screening?
Bamboo is for a large part of the world the multipurpose tool and material for so many aspects of day to day life. Everything from roofing to carpets constructed from different sizes of bamboo. Walls and screening in household interiors are just a formal extension of its natural screening effect in the wild and the garden.
For a family of plants that has evolved all around the girth of the globe you would expect to find a fair variety of form and little in the way of hardiness. In fact there are many that are hardy and the plants habit of growth is pretty similar world wide, with an underground structure of rhizomes producing shoots emerging from the ground at regular intervals. These grow into canes or culms and have little branches with leaves on emerging from nodes at regular intervals up the length of the culm. The rhizomes can form a tight clump that gradually increases in size over the years. It is the size of stems and the vigour at which they grow that varies enormously amongst the species. Some have a loose habit underground and are much more susceptible to run.
Most of them are evergreen and they can be chosen for suitability in a variety of roles; there are tall ones like Phyllostachys nudularia for screening and short large leaved varieties like Sasa veitchii for ground cover; some have remarkable stem colour like Phyllostachys nigra (black), Semiarundinaria yashadake Kimmei (yellow), Thamnocalamus crassinodus Kew Beauty (powder blue to green to dusky red); for leaf shape and variegation Sasaella masamuneana Albostrictaor Pleioblastus shibuyanus Tsuboi; as converation pieces there are the those with swollen internodes like Chimonobambusa tumidissinoda or there are zigzag culms of the likes of Phyllostachys aureosulcata, it is no wonder they are a becoming a hugely popular choice as an ornamental plant in many town and country gardens. Besides, what would a Japanese garden be without bamboo?
Bamboos are not cheap to buy because they take so long to establish as saleable plants, therefore it pays to find the right plant for the right place and prepare the site for its arrival.
Bamboos although extremely adaptable on the whole, they do not like boggy conditions especially in the winter. They do prefer humus rich soil, possibly on the acid side, but it needs to be well drained.
A heavy mulch helps to conserve moisture loss for newly established plants that
will need plenty of watering during the first two years of growth.
Some varieties may prefer dappled shade or wind protection. So check this out
with your nurseryman.
Some of the bigger bamboos may need a root barrier in place before planting in order to hold back the over powering root run. Depending on the variety, a thin trench up to 1 metre deep into which you can insert builders plastic or even pour concrete, will ensure peace of mind. This must come up just above soil level and can then be obscured with mulch.
Buy bamboos from a renowned supplier so that you can trust his or her advice, like Paul Whittaker from PW Plants. You can find him at: Sunnyside, Heath Road, Kenninghall, Norfolk, NR16 2DS. Tel/Fax (01953) 888212. Email address: pw.plants@paston.co.uk . Catalogue price 1.50. A4 SAE. He runs the business with his wife Diane, providing a mail order service and running the occasional Bamboo weekends.
Suppliers of the plants for the Best in the Show award winning Japanese garden at the Chelsea flower show 2001 was Ladybrook Nurseries, Lytham Drive, Barnhall, Cheshire, SK7 2LD. Tel: 01614 408060.
Also try Jungle Giants in Wigmore, Hereford, tel: 01568 770708 Big nurseries like Hilliers in Hampshire (tel: 01794 368733) and Wyevale in Hereford (tel: 01432 845200) also stock a very large variety of specimens.