What made you grow bamboo?

[benboo]

I was just curious how many of you people caught "Bamboo Fever"

I have always loved growing anything that I could, and watched some kung fu type movies. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers had some cool bamboo groves. Since then I always wanted my own bamboo grove in zone 6.... zone denial much?

It is also hard to deny the awesomeness of bamboo, So who wouldn't want to grow it?

[bamboothew]

I have always disliked the mostly open lawn concept that I see in most yards here and have always wanted a lush, overgrown, jungle-like, yet well organized yard and it seems that bamboo helps fullfill that desire Also, here in the southeast there are so many species that are perfectly evergreen and I am already seeing the wonderful contrast of the green bamboo against the deciduous forest that abutts my back yard and I love it!

Besides that I have always loved aggressive and unusual plants, and bamboo is very unusual indeed around here as an ornamental. Most bamboo here is either yellowgroove or vivax and only exists in the form of overgrown, weedy stands by the highways or on old farmsteads and is usually regarded in similiar fashion to kudzu. I think it will be interesting to show bamboo for the ornamental gem it really is!

It's beautiful!

Of course, I really started getting into trouble when I found out there are so many interesting species that my climate is perfect for

[stevelau1911]

I think they are way more exciting than the typical deciduous trees that can be found all over the place, especially during shooting season when shoots can rise a few feet per day, reaching their full height in under 6 weeks. Each spring you can look forward to surprises because you really don't know where the shoots will come up or how big they will get. They also have an enormous size potential which cannot be reached in just a few years, and with good maintenance, (thinning, fertilizing, winter protection), they can perform much better than if they were left in the wild. Sometimes growing garden plants where you know almost exactly what to expect gets very boring. It would also be nice to have a grove of 3 inch+ culms pushing the 40ft mark especially in a climate where most people don't even know this plant can grow. I would rather have a bamboo that has the potential to get up past 40ft with a string of warm winters as opposed to one that can reach 25ft dependably just because of the excitement.

[bamboothew]

Also meant to say earlier that I like the idea of replacing the "same old" plants with bamboo. For instance, the all-to-common leylandi screen, boxwood hedge, or lirope border: I believe all of these would look better made with bamboo instead And Steve is right, shooting season is awesome!

[benboo]

I think its funny how other people, such as my dad, think my bamboos are the same, while anybody here would argue against that.

Bamboo is way more interesting than a single deciduous tree, but bamboo forests and deciduous forests are so unique.

Has anyone actually determined the maximum heights in northern zones? or are they estimations? It seems like some maximum heights are incredibly short.

[stevelau1911]

Bamboo has a lot more diversity than most people think, but to an ordinary person, it may be hard to notice the differences in node length, branch length, leaf size, color, fuzz, striping/variation, form, shoots, growth habit, leaf count, leaf pigment, leaf shape, culm bend or straightness, white rings, air roots, hardiness, etc.


Just using this picture as an example, you can tell that bamboos are not all green, and have distinguishing features. I'm just very fascinated with shoots because of how they seem to grow noticeably throughout the day and the colors, stripes, or blotching that occurs on the sheaths as they rise. It's even better when the new shoots well exceed the size of the previous ones because you can wonder how they will look once they finish growing.


You don't find many plants where you can see a noticeable growth throughout the day, and sometimes you can even see how much the bamboo has grown overnight as white residue is left behind on the part of the sheath that was still shaded during sunset.


As far as shrubs and trees, I'm only interested in the ones that produce edible berries or fruit, otherwise if a large tree is in the way of where I want to plant something, I will cut it down to plant something useful, or is unique such as palms, bananas, carnivorous plants, certain flowers or anything I usually don't find in the gardening centers.

[Cactus Joe]

Bamboos remind me of "home". I was born and raised in tropical South East Asia, where bamboos are every where and very much a part of life. We make kites and other toys out of it, my mom used to cook rice with the culms, we build many different structures with it, etc. I have always wanted to grow bamboos and snatched at the opportunity when we bought our first property.

[oZmonKey]

The property I grew up on in south east Texas had a patch of bamboo that I fondly remember playing in. I remember my dad clearing out parts of it, and burning the culms. That's where the BAM in bamboo came from, right?

Several years ago, I had a dream where I was walking outside my house (at the time in WV), in between a shed and a bamboo thicket. The dream stuck with me and I ventured out trying to find some bamboo to transplant. Up until that point, I didn't know there were umpteen-bjillion species of boo. This kindled my obsession with this plant. I planted 4 different species on that property, but moved after only one shooting season. I'm curious how it looks now.

As of 2012, I've buried 18 different species of bamboo on my current property (been here since '09) and am eagerly awaiting imminent jungle. I'd like to round out to an even 20 this year (trying not to go crazy with it). Hopefully this mild winter is as pleasing to the boo as it is to me.

[entm]

My MIL has a grove of Golden Bamboo on her property. She did nothing to it, it had been planted by her grandfather 30 years prior. I took some poles and set them in concrete to act as a fence. I've done a lot more since then, including planting another 7 varieties that will grow much taller and thicker than the Golden. Also, you can eat some varieties when they shoot. I am very much into self-sufficiency lately.

[Paul Ont]

As with most of my horticultural interests, bamboo fits into the 'You can't grow it here" category... Which, let's be honest, is pretty fair considering that I garden in zone 4b/5a, despite what David Francko would tell us! This same interest has led me to grow and hybridize other plants as well. I'm currently growing hardy cacti, Agaveaceae, BLEs, bananas, palms, and others (mostly hardy stuff, but with a 'tropical' look). My interest also led me to start breeding programs to get hardy big leaf Rhododendrons (for zone 4b; a tall order considering that the species with huge leaves are true zone 8 plants), upright cacti (mostly Opuntia), Yucca (trying for large trunking hybrids for zone 4b), and Magnolia (trying for zone 4 hardy evergreen). If it was possible to hybridize bamboo, I'd do that too! Well, I guess I could try protoplast fusion, but that's not too likely!

I assume there are others out there who feel the same way!

[jd.]

Has anyone actually determined the maximum heights in northern zones? or are they estimations? It seems like some maximum heights are incredibly short.

A hardy bamboo that loses all above ground growth every winter may well revert to bush form every time it grows back in the spring.
For some such cases, a single meter of height would be a reasonable estimate.

[RazinCane]

I needed a windbreak for which rubro and bisettii did an excellent job, both of which are great utility bamboos.

[bamboothew]

Another big factor for me is edible shoots. There are several species that I grow mostly for edible shoot potential. Even the common yellowgroove has some of the best tasting shoots! What could be better than an edible landscape plant that is so easy to grow?

[canadianplant]

I always had an interest for plants, especially house plants. Naturally my interests evolved into outdoor gardening, trying to get a tropical look with hardy plants in my sone 3/4/5 climate (depending on where you are in the city).

So, walking to home depot, I see a table with some weird plants on it from far away. I got closer, it was a table full of Fargesia Rufa "hardy to zone 5". I got one (wish i bought more!), and have been hooked ever since.

[dependable]

My place was covered in a oak canopy over low growth huckelberry, w no privacy. The oaks manage to be mainly grey 6 months of the year here. Some one let me dig a little clump of phylostchys 20 years ago and I have not stopped collecting, though I'm running out of species that do well here that I don't have.