Today let’s celebrate this amazing grass. A few facts: over a billion people around the world live in bamboo houses; there are 1,500 species; and it can grow 4 feet in a day.
Also people are getting more creative in their uses of it. You can now buy a bicycle with a bamboo frame, flooring, sheets for your bed, and most recently, bamboo frames for your eye glasses.
As wonderful as all this is, of all the great screening plants available for our central Texas area, bamboo is the most misunderstood. Bamboo is on the ‘bad boy’ list of the City of Austin and the Grow Green Guide, where it is listed as an invasive species.
If you plant a ‘running’ bamboo as a fast growing screen, expect a chill in relations with your neighbors. They are going to be kept busy year after year combating your invasive running shoots.
The solution is simple enough. Plant ‘clumping’ bamboo rather than running bamboo. The clumping ones look beautiful in our landscapes, and you will still have cordial relations with neighbors.
Clumping varieties grow slowly in circles, and send out new shoots from their base rather than going madly across the yard.
My favorite? Alphonse Karr. It’s 15 to 20 feet tall, and is one of the most cold hardy of the clumpers. The shoots often appear pink to red in color, while stalks or culms are orange-yellow with a vertical green stripe. Planted on 2 to 4 foot centers, this bamboo will make a satisfyingly dense privacy screen.
Plant them individually, and you will find Alphonse Karr makes an attractive specimen plant. When looking for suitable clumping forms of bamboo, pick one that has sufficient tolerance to cold. Many are damaged when temperatures fall
below 20 degrees. (This was the lesson the recent severe frost reminded us of.)
Other good ones to look for are golden goddess, Buddha’s belly, and giant timber. Golden goddess is a dwarf form, rarely growing taller than 8 feet. Its density makes it an effective screening plant. Buddha’s Belly is a tall clumper with zig-zag culms.
Giant timber bamboo can grow over 30 feet tall and produces giant green
culms. To see a healthy specimen, check out the giant timber bamboo at the Four Hands Furniture Warehouse of St. Elmo east of I.H. 35.
Giant Timber should be placed in a somewhat protected location as its winter hardiness is placed at 18 degrees. Care and location for growing of bamboo is important if you want a fast growing screen. Most bamboos thrive in a sunny to partly sun location with plenty of moisture.
Our native soils should be enriched with compost at the time of planting. Continued moisture and feeding is essential if you want them to grow at high speed.
You can also grow them in containers. Choose one with good drainage and select a premium potting soil mix. I once planted two large golden goddesses in a four foot tall, oblong cattle trough to provide screening and privacy on a back porch. It worked great!
You can see plenty of bamboo at Casa de Luz in Austin (1701 Toomey Road, Austin 78704), and at Zilker Park’s Taniguchi Japanese Garden.
Happy gardening everyone!
If you have a question for Chris, send it via email to iathyme@yahoo.com. Or mail a postcard to It’s About Thyme11726 Manchaca Road, Austin, TX 78748
www.itsaboutthyme.com
