BAMBOO HOW TO

Want to screen off the neighbours? Carolyn Melling recommends: • BAMBUSA MULTIPLEX ‘GREEN GODDESS’ (syn ‘Golden Goddess’) as the best bamboo for screening in our increasingly smaller properties. It reaches 3-4m and is easily trimmed if required. Lush green with an upright habit, it’s a smaller species so is also a good container bamboo. • BAMBUSA TEXTILIS ‘ GRACILIS’ is commonly known as slender weavers bamboo and can reach 6m if left unclipped. It has naturally clear stems at the bottom and with careful trimming, you can pleach this bamboo giving it clear stems with a hedged top. It looks amazing with modern architecture and clever lighting. New Zealand is catching on fast with this variety. It is extremely popular. • BAMBUSA MULTIPLEX ‘ALBO

STRIATA’ is gaining a reputation as the cream stripe bamboo. Reaching some 6m, it can nevertheless make a good medium-sized hedge. It has attractive striped canes that are also useful for garden stakes.

• BAMBUSA OLDHAMII is popularly called the windbreak bamboo. It reaches 8-10m and is the most popular bamboo for lifestyle blocks, where it is commonly used to provide fast-growing shelter and security hedging (Jungle Flora had an avocado grower who planted it to hide his crop after getting sick of it being stolen). Windbreak bamboo is also good for creating mulch if you have a chipper.

• SIZE CONTROL “Clumping bamboo doesn’t run but it still increases in size,” Carolyn explains. “One way to control it is with a bottomless planter. This is not a root barrier as (unlike running species) clumping types don’t need that. A bottomless planter will prevent new shoots from growing by stopping the soft new growth as it hits the side of the planter. These bamboos grow in a circle, so the size of the clump will be determined by the width of the planter. Being bottomless gives the plant access to the ground moisture which is far better for the plant than a closed planter. Closed planters are good if that is the only option, for example on a deck or concrete.”