MARTYN COX’S - CITY GARDENER
Get the best out of your bamboo by careful trimming
MANY people think bamboos require very little attention. That’s partly true. Bamboos will spread happily to form a large stand if left to their own devices, but they make much better garden plants and certainly more attractive ones, if given some pruning.
A dense clump of congested canes is fine if you want an impenetrable screen around a boundary, but in small gardens it tends to block out light and prevents the beauty of individual canes from being enjoyed. In order to make clumps a bit more light and airy, I like to remove a few of them.
Start with anything that is really thin or damaged, and then move on to taking out a few larger canes - don’t go crazy as you still want an impressive stand. Cut as close to the ground as possible using secateurs, or loppers if canes are particularly thick. Apart from looking good, it’s easier to clear debris from a more open clump. To reveal the real beauty of those with colourful or striped canes remove lower branches by hand or with secateurs (see step-by-step).
Once established some bamboos will produce stems of 20ft (6m) or more. This height can provide much needed privacy but can also be a little imposing – overly tall branches also tend to bow during stormy weather or under snow. So reducing the height of some of these canes will keep clumps more garden friendly. Select a few canes for this treatment, rather than all of them. If you trim back everything you will lose the natural beauty of the bamboo.
A big no-no is pruning clumps into a uniform shape – a few years ago I saw a bamboo that had been clipped into a dome. It looked absolutely awful.