We have a small garden in north london. About fourteen years ago i planted
lots of bamboo plants around the perimeter, but they are now well out of
control, and I'm *very very very* busy trying to get rid of it.

Since I like to 'hide' with foliage the wooden fences on both sides, what
plant am i best using to now to hide the fence?

Preferably something evergreen without invasive roots and not requiring too
much pruning or attention and 'not' taking over everywhere after a few
years? Thanks for any advice.

Do you know what kind of bamboo it is? If it is a desirable one, you could pot it up and sell it on ebay. Or find someone who would come round, dig it up for you and sell it, though obviously they would keep the money.

Plenty of evergreen hedges that won't send up suckers, though they all require maintenance: holly, yew, privet, pyracantha (choose variety carefully), laurel, box... In fact many evergreen shrubs will do the job, why not be the first person with a Tasmanian pepper bush (Drimys lanceolata) hedge? The slower growing, the less maintenance, but the longer to get a hedge. Just don't use that coniferous stuff.

There are in fact a few kinds of bamboo that would do you a hedge without being invasive - you evidently were poorly advised.

"echinosum" wrote in message
...

johngood .............;731468 Wrote:
We have a small garden in north london. About fourteen years ago i
planted
lots of bamboo plants around the perimeter, but they are now well out
of
control, and I'm *very very very* busy trying to get rid of it.

Since I like to 'hide' with foliage the wooden fences on both sides,
what
plant am i best using to now to hide the fence?

Preferably something evergreen without invasive roots and not requiring
too
much pruning or attention and 'not' taking over everywhere after a few

years? Thanks for any advice.
Do you know what kind of bamboo it is? If it is a desirable one, you
could pot it up and sell it on ebay. Or find someone who would come
round, dig it up for you and sell it, though obviously they would keep
the money.

Plenty of evergreen hedges that won't send up suckers, though they all
require maintenance: holly, yew, privet, pyracantha (choose variety
carefully), laurel, box... In fact many evergreen shrubs will do the
job, why not be the first person with a Tasmanian pepper bush (Drimys
lanceolata) hedge? The slower growing, the less maintenance, but the
longer to get a hedge. Just don't use that coniferous stuff.

There are in fact a few kinds of bamboo that would do you a hedge
without being invasive - you evidently were poorly advised.
echinosum

Many thanks. Any idea where might i get detailed information on what
type of bamboo i could use for *non-invasive* hedging, since i do like
bamboo.

Why do you advise against coniferous hedge ?

"johngood ............." wrote in message
...

"echinosum" wrote in message
...

johngood .............;731468 Wrote:
We have a small garden in north london. About fourteen years ago i
planted
lots of bamboo plants around the perimeter, but they are now well out
of
control, and I'm *very very very* busy trying to get rid of it.

Since I like to 'hide' with foliage the wooden fences on both sides,
what
plant am i best using to now to hide the fence?

Preferably something evergreen without invasive roots and not requiring
too
much pruning or attention and 'not' taking over everywhere after a few

years? Thanks for any advice.
Do you know what kind of bamboo it is? If it is a desirable one, you
could pot it up and sell it on ebay. Or find someone who would come
round, dig it up for you and sell it, though obviously they would keep
the money.

Plenty of evergreen hedges that won't send up suckers, though they all
require maintenance: holly, yew, privet, pyracantha (choose variety
carefully), laurel, box... In fact many evergreen shrubs will do the
job, why not be the first person with a Tasmanian pepper bush (Drimys
lanceolata) hedge? The slower growing, the less maintenance, but the
longer to get a hedge. Just don't use that coniferous stuff.

There are in fact a few kinds of bamboo that would do you a hedge
without being invasive - you evidently were poorly advised.
echinosum

Many thanks. Any idea where might i get detailed information on what
type of bamboo i could use for *non-invasive* hedging, since i do like
bamboo.

Why do you advise against coniferous hedge ?

Other plants find it hard to grow near one but the main reason is most can
not be cut back very hard and always end up getting too big in smaller
gardens (they are find where there is space to allow them to grow)

--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cultivars

The Fargesia bamboos (e.g murieliae, rufa, nitida) are very well behaved
and are very graceful, although they do have a tendency to "weep" or curl
over at the top so don't plant them too close to a path. You will need
reasonable sized specimens to start off with as they are slow to get going
but they are extremely hardy (popular in Scandinavia apparently).


"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
...

"johngood ............." wrote in message
...

"echinosum" wrote in message
...

johngood .............;731468 Wrote:
We have a small garden in north london. About fourteen years ago i
planted
lots of bamboo plants around the perimeter, but they are now well out
of
control, and I'm *very very very* busy trying to get rid of it.

Since I like to 'hide' with foliage the wooden fences on both sides,
what
plant am i best using to now to hide the fence?

Preferably something evergreen without invasive roots and not
requiring
too
much pruning or attention and 'not' taking over everywhere after a few

years? Thanks for any advice.
Do you know what kind of bamboo it is? If it is a desirable one, you
could pot it up and sell it on ebay. Or find someone who would come
round, dig it up for you and sell it, though obviously they would keep
the money.

Plenty of evergreen hedges that won't send up suckers, though they all
require maintenance: holly, yew, privet, pyracantha (choose variety
carefully), laurel, box... In fact many evergreen shrubs will do the
job, why not be the first person with a Tasmanian pepper bush (Drimys
lanceolata) hedge? The slower growing, the less maintenance, but the
longer to get a hedge. Just don't use that coniferous stuff.

There are in fact a few kinds of bamboo that would do you a hedge
without being invasive - you evidently were poorly advised.
echinosum

Many thanks. Any idea where might i get detailed information on what
type of bamboo i could use for *non-invasive* hedging, since i do like
bamboo.

Why do you advise against coniferous hedge ?

Other plants find it hard to grow near one but the main reason is most can
not be cut back very hard and always end up getting too big in smaller
gardens (they are find where there is space to allow them to grow)

--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cultivars

Bamboo comes into two types, pachymorphic ("clumping") and leptomorphic ("running"). The pachymorphic types stay put in a location, whereas the leptomorphic run off. Most hardy bamboos are leptomorphic. The hardy pachymorphic bamboos are mostly:
Fargesia spp (as mentioned above)
Thamnocalamus spp
Borinda spp (though some Borindas are rather big bamboos, ie the clump may be quite large)
and in very mild areas there are one or two more you can grow.

Many bamboo sellers will describe other bamboos as "clumping" on the basis that they don't run very much in usual British conditions. This is really a bit dishonest.

Because Fargesia nitida has been flowering recently (and the old generation of plants has largely died off in consequence) a lot of new seed-grown stock is available, and you can now get it really rather cheaply. F murieliae flowers a few years before, so they are quite reasonable too. Although, as said above, some Fargesias are rather lax, especially F murieliae, many of the F nitida plants I have seen are not. Before the flowering, F nitida was the most commonly grown garden bamboo, for very good reason. There is quite a variety of other species and forms of Fargesia, different heights also, so quite a lot to pick from. Some of the more sought-after species are quite expensive though.

I advise against coniferous hedging because conifers don't sprout out new growth if you cut it back hard. So you end up with no frond cover if you ever let it overgrow where you want it to be and have to cut it back, or cut it back too far by mistake. Many plants sold for coniferous hedging are fast growing, and become unpleasantly large if you don't manage them, become impossible to manage at the right size eventually. The prunings are no use in the compost bin. Also they are shallow rooted, so dry out the ground in their vicinity, and make it difficult to grow plants in their vicinity, even lawn can die off too close to them. The only advantage of conifers is that when you want to kill them, pruning them at ground level is sufficient.

In article ,
"Kaz" wrote:

The Fargesia bamboos (e.g murieliae, rufa, nitida) are very well behaved
and are very graceful, although they do have a tendency to "weep" or curl
over at the top so don't plant them too close to a path. You will need
reasonable sized specimens to start off with as they are slow to get going
but they are extremely hardy (popular in Scandinavia apparently).


You'll find fargesia murieliae difficult to get since it flowered
and died some years back. Similarly Fargesia Nitida is flowering at the
moment. There are seedlings of the new generation but mostly small as
yet. Fargesia rufa is one of the nicest bamboos, but probably takes
time to bulk up.
Yushania Anceps (Arundinaria anceps) makes nice hedges. They have
very impressive hedges of it at Burton Agnes, E. yorks.
There are some good books on bamboos.
The Gardeners Guide to Growing Temperate Bamboos, Mike Bell
Hardy Bamboos - Taming the Dragon, Paul Whittaker
are probably the best
Lastly a decent nursery with some knowledge of bamboos can advise.