Bamboo Big Is Beautiful - Or Is A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing?!

Purchasing Your Bamboo

It is important to purchase a young seedling or bamboo plant that is say 12 months old EVERY TIME. When purchasing a bamboo for your garden it is important not to become carried away with buying the biggest and best bamboo that you can find. This can be difficult however especially as the bamboo plant is ideal for screening and fencing large areas within your garden. It is necessary then to detach yourself from emmotion then to pay attention to the bamboo plant and how it has been cultivated.

BUYING A YOUNG BAMBOO - Bamboo plants need time to allow for growth and maturity, this is because of their complex rhizome and root structures, if the plant is rushed or potted on too early and not allowed to grow at its own pace then it may be of poor quality, it may well be prone to disease and ultimately die.

LARGE IS NOT ALWAYS BEST - It is easy to become carried away with how large your bamboo plant is but the most important part of the bamboo is not the amount of leaf foliage above the pot or the number of culms (remember quality not quantity), it is what is within the pot, that is the Bamboo's rhizomes and roots.

GREEN LEAVES ARE GOOD - A healthy bamboo will have healthy moist leaves and fresh culms which show new growth at its nodes. The culms should be undamaged and free from disease. Bamboo with pale or yellow leaves or a high percentage of old, woody culms should be avoided as this plant will probably have been split from an older bamboo through division.

LOOK AT THE RHIZOMES and the ROOTS - The pot must be in similar poportion to the amount of leaf foliage above the pot. Take a look at the roots within the pots as these should show a healthy white root and rhizome structure. If there are a large amount of white new roots, then there will be a good strong bamboo that will emerge, at this stage you will also be able to identify whether the bamboo plant has been container grown or containerized.

Take a look around the top of the bamboo container as there should also be visible signs of fresh new growth at the edge or around the top of the bamboo pot, which again indicates a good strong plant

CONTAINER or CONTAINERISED? There are various methods of growing bamboo for your garden, this can be from bamboo seed (which is hard to come by given the long flowering periods of bamboo), vegetative, division , tissue culture, however which ever method is used each has their own advantages and disadvantages.

Bamboos grown and potted on in containers is a bamboo plant that has been allowed to grow at its own pace and mature throughout its life, it is a bamboo that will have been potted on when it was ready for the next stage in its growing cycle. This will provide a healthy balanced bamboo plant, that when positioned in the garden will be healthy and able to adapt to the change in conditions easier than a containerised bamboo.

Let us then take a look at a containerised bamboo plant, this is one which has been split from a large stock plant through the splitting of the root and rhizome structure. If great care is not taken the rhizome and root system can be severed when the division took place, so whilst the bamboo may have fantastic foliage and be of a good size, checks must be taken as previously discussed.

Look at the culms/ canes - is there a mixture of young and old, with visible signs of new leaf growth? Leaves - these should be healthy, moist and green in colour Roots and Rhizomes - do these look white and healthy and have new growth, are they intact Pests and Diseases- look for visible signs of damage and establish if chemicals have been used when treating these (chemicals can damage the immune system) Gain as much information from the supplier as possible.