Bamboo for screening

[heathergem]

Hi all,

My garden is overlooked on 2 sides and I'm looking at either using bamboo or adding trellis to the fence and having climbers.

Does anyone have any tips on planting bamboo (either in the ground or troughs ? There are lots of varieties as well. Height to be at least 6-7 foot. What maintenance would they need and how quickly do they grow.

Thanks.

Sorry, OP, no advice, but I’m thinking similar and was interested in replies. I’ve only ever had potted bamboo, and it was beautiful — black-stemmed) , but I gather some varieties can be really invasive?

@Bainne

Sorry, OP, no advice, but I’m thinking similar and was interested in replies. I’ve only ever had potted bamboo, and it was beautiful — black-stemmed) , but I gather some varieties can be really invasive?

I've a patio garden but I'm wanting it repaved as well so I'm thinking I could have a trench of the bamboo up next to the fence instead of in pots.

But maybe that might rot the bottom of the fence quicker?

Hopefully a MN bamboo expert will advise!

I have 3, 50cms pots of bamboo up to 6ft tall. They screen next door’s ugly bit of fence. I bought them from Homebase, reduced ( large ones are expensive ) when they were about 4ft high.
They like a large pot, I used plastic for cheapness, move ability and retaining water. They’re planted in ordinary potting compost, watered frequently and fed once a week in the summer.
Plant up in straight sided pots, I made the mistake of fancy bulbous ones, at first. It was very difficult to get them out to repot.

Bamboo is great for screening if kept in pots. I have some planters of bamboo on my decking to help with screening. It doesn't seem to need a lot of looking after.

If you want to plant in the ground be very careful what type you get as many spread like mad and are really difficult to get rid of. The roots can even come up through paving slabs ( talking from experience).

So bamboos are very invasive, I was looking at them last year.

www.jparkers.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=Bamboo

This supplier is quite good with advice and plants

We have a Fargesia murielae (5 feet tall after 4 years) that we were assured was non-invasive, and was planted directly into the ground. Fast forward 3 years and its roots were creeping everywhere and breaking through paving. We installed a root barrier, but it would have been easier to do it at the time of planting. It's not been so happy since it was lifted and replanted with the barrier around it.

We also have Phyllostachys aureosulcata 'Spectabilis' (yellow groove bamboo) in planters, those are about 9 feet tall after being planted 4 years ago.

Very happy with all our bamboos but just a note they shed throughout the year! I put all the shed leaves around the base of the bamboos.

My PIL's next door neighbour has a vast bamboo hedge, having planted it directly in their garden border as a screen about 10 years ago. It rapidly expanded to fill the neighbour's entire borderand is now a very, very dense thicket which they appear to struggle to manage. The neighbours hack away at it, but it is now several feet deep and not as attractive as when it was first planted. However it does make an impressive rustling sound when it is windy.

My FiL was obliged to abandon gardening his border as the bamboo goes so deep and then pushes up, trying to spread everywhere. He poured a concrete base, built an outdoor bbq.

Please, please just plant something else or put the bamboo in large pots on a solid concrete base so the roots cannot escape. It's not a great choice in the soil.

A quick cheap screen could be done with red Robin (photinia) or Portuguese laurel if you're happy to wait a couple of years for it to reach a good height.

Trellis with plants grown against it would be a nicer choice.

Thanks for all of the information, if I take the plunge, they'll be in pots.

Is there a good time to buy, eg spring? Or does it not matter, I wonder.

Morning folks, just to say that I spied some black bamboo in b&q yesterday, it was about 7 foot tall.

I'm doing some tidyup in the garden this weekend so might be ready for a few pots of it next week.