The Benefits of Bamboo

Author: Meera, March 18, 2014

 

 

Bamboo plants make great screens and clipped hedges

Bamboo plants make great screens, clipped hedges, or a dramatic foil for plants layered in front of it.

 

Bamboo plants are favored by environmentalists because they are drought tolerant, can be used for erosion control, are not fussy about soil, make fast-growing hedges or screens, and quickly naturalize.

 

We grow mainly the clumping type of bamboo because it makes very little horizontal growth and stays tightly clumped. It just gets dense.

 

The runner type, however, spreads through underground stems that grow out from the rhizome. These are the types of bamboos that reach considerable heights and form groves.

 

Dividing the plants helps maintain control of these woody-stemmed giant grasses.

 

Spring is the best time to divide bamboo plants. Although spring is still a few days away, we are dividing the bamboo that thrives along our farmette fences and planting it as a screen on the side of the house where we can see traffic from the road.

 

Although bamboo has gotten a bad rap for spreading into areas where it isn’t wanted, it can be confined in containers or by inserting metal or concrete barriers into the soil to prevent unwanted invasion by the runner type.

 

The plant’s evergreen leaves on tall, slender stems look graceful swaying in the breeze and, coupled with its other benefits, make bamboo a good choice for some landscapes.

 

 

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