Bamboo care

[ElleDubloo]

I've acquired three miserable-looking pots of bamboo. I don't know what type of bamboo they are. I want to plant them in the garden (taking necessary precautions e.g. root membrane) but I'm not sure if they're going to survive at all? They are about a foot high and dropping and brown. What can I do to rejuvenate them?

Bamboos can sit there looking miserable for years at first but then, once they have ensured their root system is good and strong, they will shoot up all over the place and devalue your home

Just water them, they will be fine.

They are grass, so feed them.

That sounded rather peremptory. They need a high nitrogen fertiliser in spring and a balanced one until August.

Thanks. What's a balanced fertiliser?
Do you think they'll benefit from going into the ground now, or can I afford to wait a year or two?

Plant them in a big tub. My new build house had bamboo, which came up through the lawn and had to be mown into submission.

Dropping and brown is normal for bamboos at this time of year.
They do tend to drop in the spring, which is quite late in turning to summer.
I would plant them now and then feed.

Bamboo is evil - keep it confined in the pot, don't let it loose.

We had to move house to escape from the bamboo someone 'helpfully' planted in our last garden.

I have golden bamboo in big pots. (Put it in the ground? Are you deranged?!)

Mine like the seaweed fertiliser.

I've got three varieties of bamboo. One of them is enormous. I have no issue with them running wild. They seem to have stayed where they are meant to be and just grown tall and lush. Perfect. I love them.

Very helpful replies, thanks! I'll keep them out of the ground for now, but will buy some larger containers to put them in, and some seaweed fertiliser, and see how they do.

The problem is I don't know what species they are, or even whether they're clump forming or running.