Choosing Invasive Or Non Invasive Bamboo For Your Garden

What is non-invasive bamboo? Bamboo is a plant that is well known for spreading its roots, and quickly. Many gardeners do not give bamboo the kind of love and attention that it deserves.

Once you understand how different varieties of bamboo grow you will begin to discover which types might work best in your garden.

Two Main Types of Bamboo:

• Running
• Clumping

Clumping bamboo is actually one of a few non invasive bamboo plants. A running bamboo plant is pretty easy to spot.

This type of bamboo plant will typically grow in a horizontal manner and it is able to spread very quickly. The running bamboo plant can easily become very invasive if you allow it to.

Controlling the running bamboo plant will keep it from taking over your entire garden. You can tell if a bamboo is a running bamboo plant by the way it grows outward.

If the mid to top section of the bamboo plant is much wider than its stem, or bottom, it is most likely a running bamboo plant.

Running Bamboo Plant:

• Body is wider than stem
• Grow better in  temperate climates
• Can become invasive if not controlled

Clumping Bamboo Plant:

• Short thick in diameter
• Culms are smaller than rhizomes, or stem
• Non invasive
• Grow very slowly throughout the year, culms grow in very tight clumps, hence: Why they are called clumping bamboo plant
• Majority of clumping bamboo plants are tropical plants except a few particular species that can thrive in temperatures as low as 20 degrees Fahrenheit
• Clumping bamboos best planted in areas with little to no direct sunlight, such as in a woodland setting or on the far north side of
  

  Beautiful Bamboo

  your home

• Clumping bamboo plants are known as an understory plant

Umbrella Bamboo:

If you want a type of bamboo that will grow very well in the shade, get some umbrella bamboo. This plant will grow as tall as 12 feet, and it a great looking specimen overall.

So, if you looking for the best bamboo non invasive plant you will want to go with the clumping bamboo species. Running bamboo plants, although, harder to control will offer many more foliage and culm colors.

They are also much more tolerant to sunshine and have many different height ranges that they grow within. A physical barrier must be used to control running bamboo or else your entire garden could be in for a world of trouble.

You can use a concrete or brick planter, and if you really want to go the extra mile you can use a special rhizome barrier made from plastic.

You must maintain any barrier that you install for running bamboo or else you are much better off going with clumping bamboo. Out of all of the non invasive bamboo varieties I would recommend Robusta.