Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009

BamBOO!

Grass has a reputation as a space invader, but many regard bamboo as a friendly foe

Sean Bigley knows bamboo can be scary, the stuff of backyard nightmares.

Like something out of a horror movie, the world's fastest-growing plant can creep along underground and pop up uninvited, again and again and again. One little root can sprout a forest. Bamboo can swallow up space and make the rest of the backyard simply ... disappear.

"Bamboo has this reputation," Bigley says. "It can go crazy and get out of control. I'm working to change that concept of bamboo as an instant nightmare."

In bamboo, the Rocklin resident has found instead a gardener's dream of easy-care beauty. Bigley fell in love with bamboo's versatility and variety, from tiny pygmy miniatures nested in pots to majestic giants more than 100 feet tall. Most are drought-tolerant, too.

Bamboo is gaining fans throughout California for its fast growth and good looks. It has become a favorite for privacy screens and thick hedges, and for quickly covering ugly walls, even with little sun or water. Bamboo thrives where other plants never take root.

And that runaway reputation? Those are running varieties, Bigley points out, not their less-aggressive clumping cousins.

"I keep all my running varieties in containers," he says. "That solves the problem. If you're going to grow running varieties, you need to go in with your eyes wide open."

Wide variety

Bamboo canes — or culms, as they're properly called — come in a rainbow of colors, including outrageous stripes.

"Most people think of bamboo as green," Bigley explains, "but it can come in gold, white, red, orange, blue, gray — even black."

Bigley, an avowed bamboo geek who works for the city of Roseville, has almost 100 varieties growing in his suburban Rocklin yard, coexisting comfortably with Japanese maples and other Asian-theme plants.

He now has his own bamboo nursery, too. He started Mad Man Bamboo as a way to reach out to other bamboo lovers and thin out his own collection.

"I told him if he was going to keep buying more bamboo, he needed to start selling it, too," says his wife, Christy Bigley. "It's scary out there in our yard, like our own jungle. ... But I love it, too."

After opening the nursery in 2005, the Bigleys learned how big the world of bamboo is. With thousands of years of cultivation history, bamboo has collectors worldwide as well as everyday gardeners who have fallen for its tropical look.

Bamboo collectors can spend up to $1,000 for a single clump of the rarest varieties, with canes that resemble tortoise shell. Most plants come from divisions; the plants flower only once every 50 to 100 years.

Popular world-wide

While they're most popular in Asia, bamboos can be found throughout the world. Varieties have such evocative names as Buddha's Belly (Bambusa ventricosa), Leopard Skin (Phylostachys nigra "Bory") and Golden Goddess (Bambusa multiplex).

Gerhard Bock of Davis is among many Central Valley-area gardeners who recently learned the joys of bamboo.

"I always thought you could never grow bamboo," Bock says. "Your neighbors will hate you. It will take over the world.

"But it's safe to plant — if you plant the right varieties. And it's so beautiful. People don't even know what it is."

Ken Mollison of Rocklin discovered bamboo about three years ago and now has 41 varieties, several used for building or eating, as well as landscaping.

"You get quick satisfaction," says Mollison. "It grows so fast. A tree may take five to eight years or more to reach any size. Bamboo can fill a very big space in a short time."

Watch it grow, literally

On his property in Chico in 2007, Mollison planted a clump of giant timber bamboo, a favorite for use in construction. (Bamboo makes strong walls, floors, countertops and more. Some homes are built entirely from bamboo.) This spring, that original clump sent up 80 new shoots, each reaching 4 inches in diameter and 60 feet in height.

"Bamboo is a grass and the fastest-growing plant on earth," he adds, noting that the record is almost 48 inches in one day. "On our hottest days, you can actually see the shoots grow. That's pretty cool."

Bock started growing bamboo a year ago to fill in holes in his Davis garden.

"I love the looks," he says. "It's also a renewable resource; our whole house is filled with bamboo products."

That includes bamboo flooring, place mats and bowls.

Bamboo also has found new popularity as a textile material, producing cloth as soft as cotton.

Mollison grows some shoots to eat.

"But they need to be boiled or steamed to nullify their toxins," Mollison explains. The raw shoots contain concentrations of cyanogens, which cause cyanide poisoning.

As a renewable resource, bamboo has picked up considerable steam.

"Bamboo creates eight times more oxygen than a typical tree," Bigley says. "Its sustainability has helped make it a great resource."

And it's so pretty in the garden.

"It's very calming," says Mollison, "but I think it may be addictive. I've given plants to other people, and they've started collecting, too. It's easy to get hooked."