Black bamboo

yumyums

Hello! I'm looking for something I can plant to add height to one corner of the garden. It's a small garden so would like something tall and quite thin and airy which made me think of bamboo. I've heard bad things about it being invasive but are some types worse than others? Has anyone got any good or bad bamboo experiences that they can share?
I was hoping not to faff around with making a root barrier etc but will consider this if it's absolutely necessary.
Thanks!

BatCat

DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!!!!
I bought black bamboo a few years ago which promised to be non invasive. It tried to spread across my garden and in the end the only thing that stopped it was when it accidentally committed suicide by cracking my oil tank (yes... it grew through and punctured a double solid plastic oil tank).
Have you considered a flowering nutmeg?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leycesteria_formosa
Also nice and airy looking but not so evil.

dogstarheaven

really??? didn't think it was the creeping kind but thanks for the heads up!

i still haven't potted mine up yet but it's a 5l one that i hope to divide before transferring half of it to a 24" wide 20" deep pot.

how fast do you think mine will grow before it'll need repotting?

nachi

Absolutely agree with Blackcat - don't do it. I spent yesterday pulling up roots from the other side of a concrete path from my black bamboo. It was all sprouting - yoiks.
It grows fast, doubles in size within 2 years I expect. Contain, contain, contain and don't let the roots grow through the bottom of the container - they'll go through anything.
Nice bamboo, but very triffid-like.

Mrs_Arcanum

Blimey, ours is stuck in a very large plastic pot & is fine. Has stayed thin as well.

ukjoel

I quite like it but in my experience most bamboos will spread if given half a chance and as they sell better when described as clumpers guess what the garden centres call them?

We have had it in a couple of locations and yes it does spread out a bit but if you have a big area to fill its does for the main part in my experience stay in a clump (albeit a large one of 2-3 metre diameter). However every year it will have a little wander

walkers-crisps_are_evil

Get a clumping bamboo (they do exist). I source mine for customers from an expert in Leicester. Maybe there is an expert in Bristol too...

tim_n

homebase sell 1/2 whisky barrels for £30 which make excellent bamboo planters... that's where mine is at the moment!

Mallotum_X

Look for fargesia types of bamboo, much better behaved.

If you want to contain it then you can buy a special bamboo barrier which does work. Alternatively every year go round it with a spade to sever any roots that start to spread, and if you spot a cane came up in the wrong place then cut it straight away.

You can keep bamboo in check, but they are generally not plant and forget plants.

We visited the national collection holder of bamboos a couple of years back - Mike Bells Bamboo Garden - some are stunning.

But they can do some damage, this photo shows what a bamboo did to our patio, but it wasnt really a big deal to fix.