UK gardening - Screening fences after Bamboo invasion

Author

Screening fences after Bamboo invasion

johngood .............

2007-07-19, 9:25 am

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.

echinosum

2007-07-19, 5:25 pm

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

johngood .............

2007-07-20, 3:25 am

"echinosum" <echinosum.1156102@gardenbanter.co.uk> wrote in message
news:echinosum.1156102@gardenbanter.co.uk...
>
> johngood .............;731468 Wrote:
> 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 ?

Charlie Pridham

2007-07-21, 9:25 am

"johngood ............." <void@void.net> wrote in message
news:sBZni.8$rr5.6@newsfe1-win.ntli.net...
>
> "echinosum" <echinosum.1156102@gardenbanter.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:echinosum.1156102@gardenbanter.co.uk...
> 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

Kaz

2007-07-21, 9:25 am

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" <charlie@roselandhouse.co.uk> wrote in message
news:5gdvaoF3g5nueU2@mid.individual.net...
>
> "johngood ............." <void@void.net> wrote in message
> news:sBZni.8$rr5.6@newsfe1-win.ntli.net...
> 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
>
>

echinosum

2007-07-23, 9:25 am

johngood .............;731831 Wrote:
> "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 ?

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.

--
echinosum

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