Bamboos

Elegant and striking, bamboo is appreciated for its evergreen leaves that rustle at the slightest breeze, as well as its often colourful and decorative culms and its light and slender silhouette. There are many uses; depending on the species, they can be planted as a border or background in a flowerbed, as a stand-alone plant, in a pot on a terrace, or as a hedge. Bamboo is classified into three size categories: dwarf bamboo measures from 20 cm (8in) to 1.50 m (5ft) in height, medium-sized bamboo from 1.50 m (5ft) to 5 m (16ft), and giant bamboo from 5 m (16ft) to 10 m (33ft) and more. They all appreciate humidity, warmth, and rich soils. They prefer partial shade but tolerate full sun well, as long as they don't lack moisture. Being suckering by nature, they quickly colonise light soils but are less prolific in heavy soils. However, there is a method to control them, by planting an anti-rhizome barrier all around the clump. Buried at a depth of 50 cm (20in) in the soil, it will stop the suckers in their tracks. Finally, not all bamboo are natural colonisers, the genus Fargesia, among others, contains clumping species that grow in dense and compact tufts.