10 Pierson’s Building Center
August 21, 2020
12 Container Gardening, Part 1: Containers
September 7, 2020
Bamboo Hell to Heaven
B ack in the day, I was stupider about plants. I am now paying the price.
Let's go back some 25 years. My husband has always loved bamboo, so I put a few varieties in one of those extra large wine barrels (stupid mistake #1) and placed it on soil (stupid mistake #2).
Wine Barrel with Bambusa oldhami (Timber Bamboo),
Phyllostachys nigra (Black Bamboo), and unknown variety.
Now get a load of this stupidity: I put that wine barrel 10-feet from the swimming pool (stupid mistake #3) and to the west of it. Bet you can guess which way the wind blows. Yes, it blows from the west! Now every freakin' spring—when bamboo "cleans" itself of old leaves—the wind blows those damn leaves right into the pool.
My view while floating in the pool.
Oh...and that bamboo "cleaning"? It lasts an ENTIRE MONTH!
Now we jump ahead about 18 years. I am in the pool garden raking up the last of that year's bamboo leaves, and I trip over a stick. I try to rake it up, but the stick won't budge. I look more closely. It ain’t a stick. It's a 5-inch Timber Bamboo shoot.
I stand there dumbfounded by the stupidity, saying to myself crap, crap, crap. (I say others words too.)
Did you know over time wine barrels rot which gives plant roots inside a chance to escape and start running to freedom?!
Timber Bamboo run amok. In the far right, one has shot up through my Clematis trellis!
Every year now—and until I'm on my death bed—I play Track-And-Select with bamboo shoots, deciding which to keep based on location. It's always the Timber Bamboo thinking it can sneak past me and run to freedom.
I have threatened my husband that if one of these shoots runs up the slope and crosses my decomposed granite walkway toward my other gardens, I’m getting his chainsaw and—with or without his help—I will figure out how to use it!
Anyway, by experience I've gotten "bamboo-smart" over the years, and now I plant bamboo right in the ground. For example, this Pleioblastus viridistriatus (Dwarf Green-Stripe Bamboo) which I purchased in a gallon pot for $12.
It grows to about 2' tall and it's a runner. If you plant it, give it space. I’ve had it in the ground for at least 10 years and it has kept within a 4'x 8' space. Sometimes it can get scraggly during winter so I just cut it all down to the ground. New growth appears miraculously.
Its pretty bright green and chartreuse-striped leaves in spring turn to a mix of lush greens in summer. And it is stunning in cobalt blue containers. But let it grow solo there. Any other plant in the container will get choked out.
Bamboo gets a bad rap because some are runners (there are also clumpers), but the problem is NOT the bamboo. It is those "less smart" people who do not read plant labels before buying. (In defense of those people, a time or two I have come across bamboo mislabeled as some other plant by "less smart" nursery staff!) And also those people who knowingly buy bamboo but stupidly have no clue what hell it will cause if they just take it home and plant it wherever it "looks nice."
Here's my point. When you know it is bamboo, and you know how to work with it properly, it can be a very heavenly relationship!
My all-time favorite bamboo is the Sassa palmata.
Sad looking Sassa plamata in a wine barrel near the pool.
Going back years again, I put Sassa palmata not in one but in two wine barrels (stupid mistake #1...twice) placed, yup, directly on soil (stupid mistake #2...twice) and on either side of a bench next to the pool (stupid mistake #3...twice). And, hey, did you hear that wine barrels rot....
OMG just shoot me now because these also ran for freedom and, before I got to the shoots, they blocked the path to my fruit trees!
In defense of stupid mistake #3, I located Sassa palmata next to the pool because of its tropical effect and because it makes an excellent understory plant for nearby Redwood trees that give it some shade. Its leaves are 15" long and give the entire plant an airy look. They whistle in the wind, and this variety does not clean itself. It's happy being dirty! Thank gawd.
Sassa plamata in the ground and looking fantastic.
Another favorite is the Otatea acuminata aztecorum ‘Chica’ (Dwarf Mexican Weeping Bamboo).
Apparently I must not have read the label, because Dwarf Mexican Weeping Bamboo is definitely frost-tender, which means death. So I bought another one (call me crazy) and this time put it under a tree for protection. It is not yet showing its full potential, but I'm glad to have it.
If you want to try some bamboo yourself, there are many nurseries that sell only bamboo. My BFF, Evelyn, and I were on a girls getaway in Sebastopol, doing our normal activities like shopping (non-nursery), drinking and eating, when we stumbled upon Bamboo Sourcery Nursery & Gardens, located off the Bodega Bay Highway. It is an absolutely stunning place, so enchanting that it had us wishing for Panda Bears to pet.
Aunt Patti and I, on one of our trips, arrived at Sebastopol's, Garden Delights Nursery, expecting a full-service nursery. But all we could see when we pulled up was bamboo. So since we were not driving a U-haul, we headed off to our next destination without even getting out of the car. Since then I've discovered that the nursery we wanted is located inside West County Oasis Bamboo Garden. (So, Aunt Patti, if you're reading this, we'll need to go back to do some proper reporting!)
Where I live, there used to be a local nursery called Garden Garnish, now closed because the owners retired. Periodically I used to tell my husband to drive his dump truck there to pick out bamboo. Every time we went, he was like a grown man in a good brewery—beside himself with joy.
Inside the entrance to our place.
In our gardens we do have quite a bit of bamboo which is now properly planted and has all the room in the world to roam. It only took me a few years to figure it out!
Bamboo is definitely a BFYB plant. It has multiple purposes such as screening the neighbor's blue tarps and rotting vehicles, providing free mulch whether you want it or not and stalks for staking plants or building teepees 'cuz you have grandkids, creating your own Asia-themed garden, or making clothes or flooring because you have nothing better to do and are bored. Also, bamboo absorbs high amounts of carbon dioxide and emits high levels of oxygen. The list of its useful benefits goes on and on.
Good thing I was stupid enough—way back when—to give bamboo a try. Our place without it would not be the heaven it is today.
Photos courtesy Sheri Lynn Burke. All rights reserved.
