Greetings. I am new to the group and am currently looking at planting some
bamboo early next Spring in Seattle, WA.

I would like something that is hardy enough to deal with our occasional
dips into the 20's. It must make a good screen between properties, but not
be too invasive. I am willing to dig and install barriers as well as
provide "training" with a spade. Currently my neighbor doesn't mind if I
wander over to his side to deal with out-of-control plants.

I like the look of bamboo 1-2" in diameter and 10-20' tall. The planting
area will be shaded somewhat as it is near the north side of my house. It
is 3-4' wide and perhaps 15-20' long. Is it realistic to have a clump this
size?

Any recommendations would be welcome. I'm researching on Google and local
libraries as well. Bambusa textilis looks nice, but the references I've
seen are all in high-sun areas. I know there are some local suppliers that
I plan to visit. I imagine it is better to buy local varieties than to get
mail-order plants (especially for a newbie), right? I'm just not sure what
people are having success with in this locale.

Thanks for input.

I'll look in the group for replies--note my email has been altered to
avoid spam.

Cheers,

Jeff Dantzler (email drizzle instead of bamboo.screen)
Seattle, WA

Jeff Dantzler wrote in message news:1059632768.575674@yasure...
Greetings. I am new to the group and am currently looking at planting some
bamboo early next Spring in Seattle, WA.

I would like something that is hardy enough to deal with our occasional
dips into the 20's. It must make a good screen between properties, but not
be too invasive. I am willing to dig and install barriers as well as
provide "training" with a spade. Currently my neighbor doesn't mind if I
wander over to his side to deal with out-of-control plants.

None of the tropicals will thrive in your area. Most will look like
heck in the winter time, no leaves and a few dead culms, in the spring
it will recover, but not well if you do not have good sun.

The temperates (runners) will do well, but will be invasive. You
cannot train bamboo with a spade, you just make it mad :-) If it is
in a grassy area and your neighbor doesn't mind you can easily control
runners with a lawn mower. Just mow while the shoots are just popping
through the surface, they are soft and the stumps will rot and go
away, if you wait until the reach any decent size they will start to
harden and the stumps will stay much longer.

Good screening bamboos are in the Phyllostachys family, P. Aurea is
probably the best in your area, but it is a very vigorous runner, but
it meets your other size requirements.

www.endangeredspecies.com is good for information, they do not
currently do mail order and they are in the So. California area.

Washington Nurseries:

http://www.bambu-u.com/

There are others, but this is the only one that is "webbed up".

This site is marginal at best, but it contains some information that
you may be able to use. Just look up WA or Wa, or other variants of
Washington.

http://www.bamboopeople.com/site_select_location.cfm

Hope it helps!

Chris

There are a number of suppliers in Western Washington. Here is a list from
WSU http://agsyst.wsu.edu/bambiz.htm
I would recomend Bamboo Gardens of Washington in Redmond and Clinton in
Seattle.


--
Bill Hollenback
Tyler, WA
USDA Zone 6
Sunset Zone 2B

Chris wrote:

The temperates (runners) will do well, but will be invasive. You
cannot train bamboo with a spade, you just make it mad :-) If it is
in a grassy area and your neighbor doesn't mind you can easily control
runners with a lawn mower. Just mow while the shoots are just popping
through the surface, they are soft and the stumps will rot and go
away, if you wait until the reach any decent size they will start to
harden and the stumps will stay much longer.

Good screening bamboos are in the Phyllostachys family, P. Aurea is
probably the best in your area, but it is a very vigorous runner, but
it meets your other size requirements.

Thanks for the information. It sounds like I will have to dig down and
provide a good barrier to the rhizomes to keep spreading down to a
minimum. That means I'll pretty much be digging out the area that they
will be planted in and can put whatever soil is best once I have the
barrier in place. Any recommendations as to ideal substrate when starting
from scratch like this? I want to give them an ideal medium and I'm also
willing to water often to encourage the bamboo to quickly become
established. I've got fishtanks, so I have a great source of moderately
high-nitrogen water to keep them happy. I've heard they like a lot of
organic material like manure, etc.

If you haven't checked out http://www.bamboogarden.com/ yet--you should.
They are in Portland and have some excellent pictures of many species on
their great website.

Thanks again,

Jeff Dantzler
Seattle, WA

Jeff Dantzler wrote in message news:1059669867.766806@yasure...

That means I'll pretty much be digging out the area that they
will be planted in and can put whatever soil is best once I have the
barrier in place. Any recommendations as to ideal substrate when starting
from scratch like this? I want to give them an ideal medium and I'm also
willing to water often to encourage the bamboo to quickly become
established. I've got fishtanks, so I have a great source of moderately
high-nitrogen water to keep them happy. I've heard they like a lot of
organic material like manure, etc.

Bamboo is a bottomfeeder... don't get all fancy amending the soil when
you plant. Just dig the perimeter for the barrier and plant. Once it
is more established you can start regular fertilizing. I would start
with time release lawn starter fertilizer.. it is safe for new roots
and is readily available.

Tropicals thrive with the use of "hotter" fertilizers I use steer
manure on mine. For my temperates, I just alternate between 15-15-15
fertilizer and mir-acid. Termperates like the soil a bit more acidic
than other plants.

Good luck!

Chris

Hate to say this but-we have had bamboo for 25 yeas and it is a great privacy hedge and exotic--but is it the PLANT FROM HELL. Our entire yard is lined with it. We have no barriers and it is coming up 50+ feet away in our nieghbor's yard, pushes up our brick patio, and the only way you can dig it out is with a hatchet and lots of muscle. We have resorted to using the most nasty killers on it--and it only slows the spread down. I question whether or not a barrior would be able to control it. do your research!!!!!

There is a specialty nursery on the East side for bamboo I have seen advertised--but I'd be VERY leary of bamboo in my yard. Nerver again!

kathy king wrote in message ws.com...
Hate to say this but-we have had bamboo for 25 yeas and it is a great
privacy hedge and exotic--but is it the PLANT FROM HELL. Our entire
yard is lined with it. We have no barriers and it is coming up 50+ feet
away in our nieghbor's yard, pushes up our brick patio, and the only
way you can dig it out is with a hatchet and lots of muscle. We have
resorted to using the most nasty killers on it--and it only slows the
spread down. I question whether or not a barrior would be able to
control it. do your research!!!!!

You cannot kill it as long as it is connected to the mother plant.
You need to dig a trench around the perimeter of the mother plant that
you wish to keep severing all ties to the unwanted growth. If you
have no substructures (ie: water, gas, power, phone, cable, etc) you
can do this with a nifty device called a "Ditch witch", you can
usually rent them at any equipment rental yard, fairly expensive, but
cheaper than your back and sanity. Install your barrier. As the
rhizome in the ground outside the barrier shoots you need to let them
get to the point just before leafing out and cut out the shoot.
Eventually the rhizome in the ground will have no photosynthesis to
feed it and it will die out. If you cut the shoots as they spring out
of the ground, you will be killing it, but much slower than if you let
reach full size and starting to branch out. The culms do not provide
any real photosynthesis until it leafs out.

As long as the rogue growth is connected to the mother plant the
rhizome will continue to be supplied with energy to shoot and run.

More info here... it basically says the same thing :-)

http://www.americanbamboo.org/Genera...ingBamboo.html

There is a specialty nursery on the East side for bamboo I have seen
advertised--but I'd be VERY leary of bamboo in my yard. Nerver again!

Perhaps Chris can dig some of your plant for divisions. With a little
preperation on the front end of a project, you can avoid these
problems down the line.

BTW, Chris, if you are reading this... an ideal barrier should have a
bottom as well. About 36" down you should have a layer of coarse
gravel about 3" thick to prevent rhizome from diving under your
barrier.

another Chris
Chino,CA