Bamboos: Allow those screen idols to shine in your garden

Irish Examiner garden columnist Peter Dowdall says there are many reasons you should roll out the red carpet for bamboos 

Bamboo plants such as this fargesia can be successfully grown in pots and with correct choice can reach a height of up to five metres. Picture: iStock

Over the last 12 months, most of us have seen more of our home and garden than ever before. When we spend so much time at home every little thing gets noticed and during the last few months when the deciduous and herbaceous plants have been bare and asleep for the winter, we have had time to appreciate the skeleton of our gardens.

We have been able to spot gaps that may be there during the dormant season.

Areas which may be full of colour during spring or summer can be depressingly bare and perhaps should have some winter interest added.

There may be other areas more suited to midsummer cacophonies of colour which may be less visible during winter but parts of the garden which are constantly on view may need to be consistently colourful.

Another area of concern may be neighbouring windows which may overlook your own garden space.

This may never have posed a problem before but now, as more of us are spending more time working and living at home, this may be more of an issue.

Not that the neighbours want to be peering in but it can just be the feeling of being exposed that is the concern or to put it the other way around, the feeling of privacy and being enclosed when not overlooked adds significantly to the enjoyment of the garden.

If you have garden beds on your boundary then this can be quite simply rectified by planting specimens for screening in the right position but this can be more of a challenge if you don’t have garden space running right to the boundary or if your outdoor space is completely paved.

Many plants which can be used to screen can be grown in pots, containers and raised beds.

As the last few months have illustrated, it may be essential that such screening plants need to be evergreen and not naked during the winter.

Bamboos, many of which should come with a government warning if planted in the open ground, can be successfully grown in pots. The need for caution is because so many of them spread and spread and spread, often sending up shoots many metres away from where first planted.

Irish Examiner gardening columnist Peter Dowdall. Picture: John Allen

Plant roots are intelligent, you see, and the meristematic region in the root cap will send the roots off in search of water.

This can often be found in water pipes, septic tanks or sewerage pipes, none of which are underground services with which you want problems.

By growing bamboos such as phyllostachys, one of the main culprits in the open ground, in a pot, you not only get to enjoy all the benefits and beautiful features of the bamboo, such as elegant, evergreen foliage, a light and airy texture and of course the beautiful rustling sound as they dance in the breeze, but you can also relax, safe in the knowledge that it cannot spread beyond the confines of its pot.

Phyllotsachys nigra, a really striking, blackstemmed bamboo, adds a touch of drama to the outdoors and will reach a height of three-four metres even in a
pot.

Removing the foliage from the lower part of the stems means that you get to admire more of the black stems and you can leave the foliage higher up on the pant where you need more screening.

Fargesia is a clump-forming genus of bamboo and thus, not as problematic in the open ground.

These too can be grown in pots and while the stems may not offer the glitz and glamour of some of the phyllostachys, if you want to enjoy the foliage at a lower level then fargesia may be the one for you as they tend to be fully furnished with leaves from low down in the plant offering a more dense screen.

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