Do you want to enhance the ambiance in your garden? Then you should definitely use bamboo. Bamboo hedgingplants are beautiful and are a real asset for your garden. In addition, the leaves of the bamboo sway in the wind creating a soothing and calm sound. Bamboo plants also need little maintenance, are winter hard and their leaves stay green for a long time.

Bamboo can be divided into two groups, running and clumping bamboo. Running bamboo is a lot more invasive than clumping bamboo. This means that it can grow very fast and can easily become a nuisance in your garden. You will have to keep the bamboo in check, otherwise you will soon find it growing underneath paving slabs, the rest of your garden and in neighbouring gardens. Cut off any unwanted shoots during the growing season.

Little tip: Bamboo plants grow more prolifically as temperatures rise more and more.

Clumping bamboo is much better behaved, it grows more slowly and does not become as big as running bamboo. Their growth remains concentrated to one clump.

The clumping bamboo come from the mountains of China, where the running bamboo orginally comes from a large area that extends from the Himalayas to Japan.

Examples of clumping bamboos are:

• Fargesia Jiuzhaigou
• Fargesia Murieliae Jumbo
• Fargesia Murieliae Simba
• Fargesia Nitida

Examples of running bamboos are:

• Phyllostachys Aurea
• Phyllostachys Bisettii
• Phyllostachys Nigra

Most bamboo plants can be planted once the frost period is ended. This will be late February or the beginning of March. The planting period of bamboo trees runs late in the autumn.