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Old 02-01-2007, 01:47 PM
echinosum echinosum is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Feb 2006
Location: Chalfont St Giles
Posts: 1,340
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mitch
I'm looking for recommendations for the variety, spacing, and
planting of a bamboo to QUICKLY grow privacy screen in Victoria BC
(Zone 9). [snip]
· The length of the screen we plan on growing is 60' (18 meters). [snip]
· While the screen will be planted along a 60' (18 meter) fence, we
would prefer a narrow dense long line of bamboo rather than a thick
bushy grove. Imagine a solid bamboo fence with a leafy canopy.
· We would prefer a green over a yellow colour, but cost is a greater
factor [snip]
The obvious suggestion is Semiarundinaria fastuosa or (better) Semiarundinaria fastuosa var viridis. It is known as temple bamboo and commonly used for hedging temples in Japan. The point about S. fastuosa is that it can be easily persuaded to spread in straight lines, which you achieve by enclosing it both sides so that only the direction you are interested in is available to it. I believe it satisfies your other requirements, especially in your climate, apart from the fact that it leafs to the ground so you will have to clear the lower part of the culms if desired. (The var viridis stays greener, and possibly even more straight-line, whereas the species tends to lose the green colour after a while, but is more easily purchased.) As to quickly, you will have to wait some years for the final effect, unless you have a budget in 1000s, but that will be true of any bamboo. I understand bamboos tend to be fairly rampant in your climate, so perhaps not too many years. But with the straight line tendency you can probably get away with rather fewer plantings than might otherwise be necessary, since most running bamboos have a grove-forming tendency. The semiarundinarias are also a relatively cheap bamboo, though all bamboo tends to be expensive, very expensive when you are buying 18m of it. The alternative is to propagate your own, but that is time-consuming.

Otherwise several of the green Phyllostachys spp (P bissettii, P vivax, P dulcis, etc, etc), are relatively quick to give height, and energetic in their running, and I think would tend to spread pretty quickly in your climate; but you could need more starter plants to fill out a fence given their generally grove-forming tendencies. Vivax in particular will have lower culms free from leaves; as well as the green species you can get a variety called huanvenzhu which has a nice yellow stripe on it, (as well as var aureocaulis, yellow with a green stripe).

Best to avoid the utterly rampant Sasas which are too likely to escape and become an ineradicable invasive weed in the PNW, even if you try to enclose.

I would also suggest posting the question to the forum at www.bambooweb.info, where you will find more bamboo traffic, with a US/Canada bias. There are also quite a few active PNW posters at the otherwise UK-focused www.ukoasis.co.uk exotic plants forum.