Bamboos

We grow about 20 bamboo cultivars at Winsford Walled Garden. Mention  'Bamboo' and you can almost see people's eyes glaze over as they create a mental picture of exotic tall, swishing plants. Hollywood movies show fantastical swordsmen fighting high up amongst lush massive  canes only adds to the romance of these fine plants. They're also quite something when they're covered in snow.

Bamboo in Britain is an expensive plant to purchase. Our advice is not to be persuaded by the height of the plant in the pot and instead focus on the size of the plant material in the compost because it is this which is the 'engine of your future growth'. The ultimate spread of any bamboo is dependant upon variety, temperature, available moisture and your soil composition. Bamboos have a poor tolerance of drought conditions. If the ground is full of shale it's travel will be severely hampered - but not restricted.

Never remove the paper-like sheaths that cling around the new stems. Wait until they fall away naturally. Otherwise you will awake  next morning to find your would-be tall stem has turned an irretrieveable 90 deg.

Bamboo was first introduced to Winsford Walled Garden in March, 2000. Today, you can 'lose' yourself in the bamboo grove at Winsford Walled Garden.

We can all now appreciate the error of the advice suggesting householders' use a 90ft x 20ft conifer as a garden hedging material and planting them just four feet apart. . . . . . (And please, don't start me on 'dwarf conifers' that aren't dwarf, and all those attractive grasses that populated the mid-west of America but which are suddenly 'safe' in suburbia!) So, likewise, if anyone suggests bamboo can be controlled with an 'underground skirt'  or something similar, I suggest you ask him or her this question. "In all its evolutionary millenia how do they think bamboo surmounted the 'problem' of a stone in the ground?"

Bamboo are wonderful plants, but purchase them with your eyes wide open. Be prepared for these fabulous plants and you will enjoy them all the more. I for one don't have any regrets. 

For further details on how we established and developed the Bamboo Grove at Winsford Walled Garden or see these below pages on individual bamboos.

Phyllostachys nigra 'Boryana' for further details.