Bamboo That Behaves

Avoid the runners, favor the clumpers and bathe in their lovely waves

AFTER I SPENT too much money hiring strong, persistent young men to dig out an aggressive wall of bamboo, I turned right around and replaced it with — what? — more bamboo. But only because I was assured that Chusquea culeou is a hardy clumper that wouldn't invade. Ever. Clumping bamboo is different biologically than invasive bamboo because the rhizomes don't spread out of a given area, while running bamboo's stretch yards away from the original plant, colonizing your neighbor's garden as well as your own.

Few plants are as versatile, fast-growing and lovely in all seasons as bamboo. No other plant takes up less horizontal room while creating an evergreen screen, and few rustle in the wind so beautifully. But many of us are scared of bamboo, and rightly so.

"How do I get rid of it?" That's the question bamboo expert Jackie Heinricher is asked most often. Heinricher, owner of Boo-Shoot Gardens, reassures that plenty of bamboos can be trusted to avoid long-term trouble. Non-invasive bamboo spreads slowly into a larger clump, like an iris, rather than like wildfire.

She admits she's never seen a barrier that could effectively contain running bamboos: "Steel, plastic, cement, none of them work — nurserymen need to tell the truth about bamboo." She grows running bamboo at her display garden because she has seven acres and doesn't have to be too worried about it spreading. She surrounds the groves with canals of sand because rhizomes seek the path of least resistance and go for the sand. Then she cuts the rhizomes off in the fall, which helps keep the bamboo from taking off. Nevertheless, any running bamboo she sells has a bright orange cautionary tag on it.

Heinricher mostly sells "bamboo that behaves," a slogan she's trademarked. After six years of research and development, Boo-Shoot Gardens is shipping clumping bamboo all over the U.S. and Canada, and is starting to sell in Europe. Heinricher has 27 species in mass production, most of which are clumpers. Boo-Shoots has a display garden near Anacortes and a production center in Mount Vernon. Bamboo that behaves, with a bright go-ahead green tag, is sold in many local nurseries.

We used to think that few clumping bamboo were hardy in our climate. Not true, says Heinricher. The Northwest is one of the best growing regions, because this noninvasive bamboo flourishes in our mild winters and cool summer evenings. Bamboo has a cycle that's the opposite of most garden plants: In the spring it sheds leaves as if it were autumn, and only by July and August does it turn green and plump and settle into summer. Provide it with rich soil and feed with composted manure. Although it doesn't like standing water, remember that bamboo is a grass, so it needs to be watered regularly.

Heinricher describes Fargesia 'Rufa' as "a home run of a bamboo." It's dainty, topping out at 8 feet, with glowing orange-red cane sheaths, and is especially cold hardy (down to minus 20 degrees). I've just planted a screen of Fargesia robusta, chosen for its shiny olive-green leaves, geometric white patterning on the canes and narrow, clean habit. Next year, Boo-Shoot will be selling the first cold-hardy, noninvasive timber bamboo, Borinda boliana. This is one flashy bamboo, perfect for solving any privacy problems because it grows 30 to 50 feet tall, with powder-blue new canes that turn to burgundy and purple as they mature.

Heinricher recommends planting bamboo for accents in perennial gardens, as evergreen screens, as an understory beneath larger trees, or as a way to soften a wall. It makes great bird habitat, growing into shady groves, or can be used to hold hillsides in place. "I see bamboo being where ornamental grasses were about 15 years ago," says Heinricher. "They're really going to break out."

Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and contributing editor for Horticulture magazine. Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net.