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.
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.
