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Beware bamboo: Choose carefully before planting

been used as barriers, with various degrees of success. Once youhave taken care of that problem, you're on your way to reaping themany benefits bamboo has to offer.

    Environmentally friendly

    Although bamboo is not a traditionally large part of the U.S.economy, it seems that lately, eco-friendly bamboo products areeverywhere. Two popular examples:

Ultra-soft towels and bedding, great for the environment and foryou, because bamboo requires fewer pesticides to cultivate thancotton and has natural anti-bacterial properties.Furniture, paneling and flooring, more sustainable and renewablethan hardwood tree products, in that bamboo continues to producenew stalks after harvest.

    Efforts to investigate commercial production of bamboo during the1900s were abandoned, mainly because of a weak domestic market. Nowthat there is a demand for bamboo, growers are taking a secondlook.

    Edible barrier

    In your garden, bamboo makes a better choice as a barrier thannon-living walls, by virtue of its outstanding ability to reducegreenhouse gas and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Also,it allows good air flow and circulation, but it provides screeningfor you and habitat for wildlife.

    Bamboo is not just panda chow. You can dig a few young shoots toenjoy in a stir-fry as a spring vegetable. You also can cut somecanes, which are lightweight but strong, to stake up your gardentomatoes.

    Bamboos are large, woody members of the grass family. Theirsectioned stems, called culms, can reach more than 40 feet high,bearing leaves from the nodes between sections on arching branches.They have a long history in Asian cultures. They create gracefuland exotic forms in the garden, and the sound of the leavesrustling in the breeze creates an atmosphere of serenity.

    Selecting bamboo

    Bamboo growers are quick to note that there are two main types of bamboo: running and clumping. Running bamboo, often cold-hardyenough to be grown in temperate areas, sends out long runners withpointed tips that sometimes can travel 20 feet underground beforepopping up a new shoot. Clumping bamboo stays more in one placewith close-growing rhizomes, and it doesn't usually need a strongcontainment system. Clumping bamboo, however, tends to favortropical climates and generally don't thrive as well in our area,although some types of Fargesia have done well as container plantsin protected areas.

    In Kentucky, early settlers encountered canebrakes of nativerunning river cane, Arundinaria gigantea, which at one time markedthe most fertile soils along rivers with its prolific growth. Itsabundance is remembered in many place names, including Cane Ridgeand Cane Run.

    You can find canebrakes in natural areas, including the stand alongthe Prickly Pear and Shawnee Run trails at Shakertown in MercerCounty, Ky.

    Tim Brooks and Joe Dietz have used the native cane for landscapingtheir back-yard garden in the Edgewater neighborhood, and they haveplanted a shorter variety, Pleioblastus variegatus, which haswhite-and-green striped leaves, for contrast.

    The native cane grows more than 15 feet tall, and depending on howthe leaves are trimmed can be a wild jungle, or tamed into whatBrooks prefers as "manicured, to give more of an Asian look, withhorticultural value as a see-through vista."

    Planted along a raised board walkway, the effect is perfect, but asDietz points out, it needs lots of mowing, weeding and trimming tokeep it from taking over. After mature culms are thinned out,they're reused as fencing and support along the walkway edge.

    Brooks, a member of the Lexington Fayette Urban County GovernmentTree Board, has given seminars to city council members on theimportance of trees in the urban forest. Dietz, who originallyworked in Kentucky forestry, now helps to organize the KentuckyState Nature Preserves Commission's efforts.

    Growth habits

    Bamboos have unusual flowering patterns, some blooming only once in100 years, after which the entire plant dies.

    As a result, most propagation is done by root division, and morerecently by tissue culture. When establishing your bambootransplants, you'll need to keep the ground moist until roots takehold and new growth is observed.

    Bamboo generally begins growing in the spring, shooting up straightnew culms first, then sending out leaf-bearing branches. Bamboodrops some spring litter as it grows, and it requires trimming andthinning to maintain vigorous growth.

    In late summer, rhizomes form underground. Many bamboo varietiesprefer humid, shady conditions for the best growth. So dry, hotsummers can be as damaging as cold winter weather, which can causeleaves to drop, and unusual cold snaps can kill the tender plants.

    The American Bamboo Society's national president, Brad Salmon,lives and gardens in Brown County in southern Indiana, which is inUSDA Zone 6. His photos, observations and discussions about howwell various bamboos thrive in this area, found at www.needmorebamboo.com, provide a wealth of help in selecting specimens for your ownyard. There are choices for culm colors and variegations, leafpatterns, height and shape that you'll want to consider.

    No matter which you choose, bamboo is a plant to watch if you'rewanting a better way to go greener in your garden.