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By Ted Jordan Meredith; 406 pages, hardcover If you are planning to include bamboo in your garden, this book will be your lifelong guide. The author, a Washingtonian, uses many beautiful photographs and a a gift for interesting prose to explain all about using bamboo in your garden landscape. Learn much about the many varieties including techniques for growing, controling, thinning, eating, harvesting and propagating bamboo.
(Pleiblastus fortunei) Called dwarf white stripe, it grows only about 2 1/2 feet tall with bold green and white variegated leaves. Better than Jesse James at holding up a bank, nothing beats groundcover bamboo for stabilizing soil, even though the mat of rhizomes only go about one foot down. Plant 1-2' apart. Keep ground cultivated and loose and plants spread well and are easily transplanted. One gallon size.
Also known as Hardy Dragon bamboo, this clumping variety grows to 16 feet tall and one half inch diameter. It is hardy to minus 10 degrees F. It is the best clumper for sunny locations, some plant culms turning almost black while others turn shades of red, yellow or green. The leaves do not curl in the cold or heat as do other Fargesias and the darker green, dense foliage makes it an ideal hedge plant.
Hardy to minus 20 deg. F., it grows at high elevations in China where it is a staple food for the Panda Bear. The many small thin leaves and thin upright shoots make a beautiful 12 foot tall hedge. Grows in sun but prefers partial shade.
A hardy clumper, to -20 degrees F. It has dense foliage and makes a beautiful 12 foot tall hedge. The canes are very strong and make excellent garden stakes. It is the most upright growing of the Fargesia. It looks best when sited where it is not exposed to mid-day hot summer sun.
(Hibanobambusa tranquillans 'Shiroshima') This midsized bamboo is suited to containers or the garden. It is an aggressive runner, growing to 16' in the ground, with beautiful yellow and white variegation on the leaves. It does best in morning sun or filtered shade. Gallon sized.
Among the most hardy and beautiful with green culms, 20% growing with a 45 degree angle zig zag at the base. It is fast growing and hardy to -20 F, surviving untended in Southern Michigan. It grows 20-25' tall and 1 1/2' in diameter. The new shoots are tasty.
Commonly called Sweetshoot Bamboo for its tasty shoots early in the season. It is among the most beautiful with its masses of large drooping leaves, thick culms and a white ring at each node. It is very quick growing and gets very thick for its height, up to 3 inches in diameter at 30 feet in height. It is hardy to minus 10 F.
(Black bamboo) New stems are green, turning black the second growing season. The black culms contrasted with the green foliage make this among the most favored and beautiful landscape plants in the world. The thin walled canes are very hard and used for cabinetry in Asia. They make beautiful fences and gates. The two inch diameter canes will grow to 25' tall and are hardy to 0 degrees F.
It is a special feeling being in a tall graceful stand of Henon. The long sturdy culms are free of branches about half way up to the olive green swaying canopy. It grows to 40 feet or more and 3 inches or more in diameter. Its late spring shoot growth help make it cold hardy to minus 10 degrees F.
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