Know everything about bamboos

Today, bamboos are very sought after in Europe. The large choice of this family of plants means that there is one to please everyone. Whether you want to create a special ambiance with the plants or just an intimate space, there is bound to be a bamboo that is right for you! Some lend themselves to being planted in clumps, as ground cover or even used to make little forests. They are often used for hedging or creating a screen, planted either in the ground or in planters. Finally, bamboo is perfect for consolidating banks or mounds of earth.

The choice of bamboos is enormous, so make sure that you choose the right one:

Zoom Cane Running Bamboo

- Height: Some bamboos have an adult height of only a few dozen centimetres whilst others can reach between 8 and 10 metres. Their growth is very quick so do not count on pruning as an effective way of controlling the height. It is much better to choose a variety at the start that is going to be the right height for your needs.

- The cane: Red, yellow, black, streaked, speckled, twisted, from a few millimetres in diameter to several centimetres, the bamboo’s stem is one of its essential decorative elements. Please yourself and create a real work of art with the plants.

- The foliage: It can be open or dense, sometimes weeping or upright. Solid green, dashed with white or yellow, slender leaves or broad and occasionally scented, the foliage is as an important factor on choice as the stems.

- The roots: We should say the rhizomes. A rhizome is like an underground stem that contains both the roots and the buds from which future canes will grow. Some bamboos have a running rhizome system. This means that the underground stems go out in all directions and new canes can appear several metres away from the initial plant. If this is the case then an anti-rhizome barrier needs to be used to contain the roots and avoid a difficult to control invasion...

clumping bamboo

...However, other bamboos are known as clumping, this means that they do not have a running (invasive) root system (an example is the fargesia). They are not invasive and are consequently sought after, however the choice is smaller.

True or false bamboo ?
Be careful not to confuse the true bamboos that have canes with the sacred bamboos (Nandia), which have a bush like growth and never produce canes. Their leaves however do resemble those of a bamboo hence how they got their name.

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