bamboo — not just for pandas Growing bamboo adds privacy & beauty to garden story by Amy Beth Graves
photos by Megan Nadolski Almost 30 years ago, Farm Bureau member Jerry Burton got rid of some mute swans from his pond and in return received a few bamboo plants. It was the start of a lifelong love of bamboo, which is now a full-time business at his home near Morrow in southwestern Ohio.
Bamboo growing in Ohio? Not only can bamboo be successfully grown in Ohio, but the River Cane species (Arundinarea Gigantea) is native to Ohio, Burton said.
“Bamboo is a great plant to grow in a garden, especially if you want to have a privacy screen. Bamboo stays green even in the winter,” Burton explained as he walked around his property, showing off some of the 60 varieties of bamboo that he grows. Burton’s business, Burton’s Bamboo Garden, sells about two dozen varieties of bamboo plants and bamboo barrier through the Web site, www.burtonsbamboogarden.com
Bamboo guru
Burton is somewhat of a bamboo guru. He is president of the Mid-States Chapter of the American Bamboo Society and has traveled as far as China to examine different varieties of the plant. His rural house is filled with bamboo products such as bamboo flooring, decorative wall hangings, furniture, instruments and an example of the bamboo filament that Thomas Edison used while experimenting with light bulbs. He gives lectures year-round to garden clubs and other organizations about the benefits of growing bamboo.
“Bamboo is a magnificent plant,” Burton said, his hand brushing the green and white stripes of a dwarf bamboo that looks more like a groundcover than a bamboo plant. “It’s fast growing, attracts wild birds, provides privacy and there’s hundreds of uses for the canes such as curtain rods, flooring, walking sticks, fishing poles and so on.”
Bamboo basics
More than 1,200 varieties of bamboo have been found worldwide, ranging in height from 1 foot to more than 100 feet, according to the American Bamboo Society, which has members in 38 countries. Bamboo, which is a grass variety, can grow in many different climates, from jungles to high mountainsides, according to the organization’s Web site. More than 1 million tons of bamboo is harvested yearly.
Bamboo flowers at irregular and very lengthy intervals – some varieties don’t go to seed for 100 years, Burton said. Bamboo planted in the spring can grow an impressive 24 inches to 36 inches in a 24-hour period, and reach full height in as little as one to two months. The bamboo plants then start to grow horizontally through their underground stems, called rhizomes.
“There’s a saying about bamboo: It sleeps in the first year, creeps in the second and leaps in the third,” Burton said, pointing out that a gardener can have a privacy screen in just three years.
Planting bamboo
Burton said it is unfortunate that bamboo has a reputation for being an invasive plant.
“It’s not a terrible plant. What you usually have are terrible gardeners,” he said. “I often ask people ‘Would you go to the zoo if you knew that the animals weren’t contained’? You just have to know how to grow and contain bamboo.”
Burton’s Bamboo Garden sells lightweight polyethylene barriers that keep bamboo from neighbors’ yards or other areas. The barrier should be buried 22 inches for the 24-inch deep barrier and 34 inches for the 36-inch deep one, he said. If you don’t use a barrier, mow the area around your plants to help keep them from venturing too far into the yard. The only effective way to get rid of bamboo is to dig it out, Burton said.
When planting 5-gallon bamboo plants, they should be planted every 4 feet so they will have space to grow horizontally. Dig a hole at least the same length as the plant’s pot and mulch the area. Make sure the plants have sufficient drainage, because they hate to have “wet feet,” Burton said. Most plants need four hours to five hours of sunshine and adequate water in dry periods.
The key to growing bamboo successfully is to know what you’re doing, Burton said. He recommended that gardeners contact bamboo experts because they know the tricks of the trade. That’s what the Ohio Department of Transportation did when it planted more than 1,000 bamboo plants three years ago along a stretch of Interstate Highway 71 near Montgomery.
“Bamboo is gaining in popularity and increasingly being used in yards. Many people are surprised that not only can it be grown in Ohio but that it makes an excellent privacy fence,” Burton said.
Amy Beth Graves is a freelance writer from Franklin County.
To comment on this article, contact info@ourohio.org
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Click here to login or register.
|
