Elegant and graceful bamboo
BAMBUSA (CLUMPING BAMBOO).
Bambusa is perhaps the tallest and the most amazing grass in the world. Bambusa (a sort of clumping bamboo) is referred to grass family, it’s an immediate relative to wheat, oats, corn and other grass cultures. Bamboo plant is widespread in the world, mostly in tropics and subtropics, but it sometimes grows high in the mountains, where bambusa is able to withstand the temperature up to -20 centigrade degrees. Bamboo plant numbers 1500 types. It is also widespread in the USA (both wild and decorative types, there is also an American bamboo society caring about bamboo plants and monitoring the development of this plant in future.
Bamboo tube (or bamboo body) looks like straw, and consists of nodes and internodes. The plant is growing because of these internodes. It’s pretty interesting that the rudiments of nodes are located in the buds of the sprouts of bambusa. Depending on a type bamboo can be grass-like or tree-like. The thickness of bamboo body can also vary from 2-3 cm to 30 cm in diameter. Bamboo tube is able to branch out, and it makes this grass tree-like. At the beginning of its growth the tissues of the tube are soft (young bamboo sprouts are edible), in 2-3 years the tube solidifies and becomes very strong and steady (stearier than oak wood). In appropriate conditions bamboo grass is growing quite fast and may reach 100 ft tall. The speed of bamboo growth can reach up to 3 ft a day. Bamboos reach their maximum height during 1.5-2 months, and afterwards their growth is over. Among all known species of bamboo only one is considered to be poisonous — Bambúsa arundinácea.
Counting all bamboo species makes no sence, as they are too numerous. If you think about growing bamboo in your garden, you should look for a specie able to grow in your climat conditions. The main criteria is the lowest temperature in winter which your bamboo can withstand.
“Black bamboo” is considered to be the most decorative. This specie of bambusa comes from China. Young sprouts of this specie are green. In a year or two after it is planted the bamboo body bacomes dark, almost black colour, while the leaves remain bright green. The lowest temperature black bamboo is able to withstand is -20 centigrade degrees.
Bamboo in blossom is a very rare event. Tree-like bamboo plants bloom only
once. It happens in 30-60-120 year age depending on the specie. The bamboo flowers look like oat brushes. Blossoming happens on the whole plantation simultaneously, and after it all the plantation perishes.
Bambusa is the most fast-growing grass on Earth. In a short time it covers large areas creating large groves, and such vitality is used for shipping for various purposes.
Mature bambusa is stronger and steadier than oak tree. Whatever has been made from bamboo plant in the areas of its natural growing. By splitting a bamboo tube along, they got thin sticks used for writing. Bamboo slivers can be so thin that even needles were made of them. By smashing a tip of a bamboo stick they got paintbrushes. And the paper for such painting was also made of bamboo grass. Bamboo plant is used for paper manufacturing nowadays as well. Thin bamboo tubes are used for making flutes, and big diameter bamboos are used for making wonderful sounding drums.
Buildings made of bamboo have been dwell for centuries. Rafts and boats made of bamboo tubes feature durability and excellent floatation ability. In the ancient times bamboo plants were used for producing tubes for water transporting, and philistines used dishes of bamboo, and knitted floor mats of bamboo grass as well.
Furniture made of bamboo is lightweight and solid, construction and decorative materials are beautiful and durable, mats and various fabrics made of bamboo are very popular among the devotees of ecological housing. Bamboo in the interior as a house plant, as furniture or as different decorations brings an element of orient in design, reminding of China or Japan. Besides, bamboo flooring is very popular too. Flooring bamboo home can guarantee very long period of exploitation and pleasant impressions.
Bamboo is an excellent plant for creativity both when it grows and as a construction material, and as an element of decoration. You can make loads of beautiful and useful things of bamboo plant. Green bambusa is a very useful plant. Bamboo forest produces 35% more oxygen than any other forest with an equal square.
Bamboo grass is not just a basic material for dozens of useful products, it’s also used for food, and nowadays it’svery popular to grow ornamental bamboo at home. Young sprouts of bamboo are edible uncooked, boiled, fried, marinated, and even produce alcoholic beverages. In many countries where bamboo grows in natural conditions, it’s a widespread and beloved foodstuff.
Bamboo plant is also not underestimated by feng shui adepts. Bamboo is a symbol of longevity, health, vital energy and strength of spirit, wealth and luck; they believe bamboo plant is an essential element of home beautification. From this point of view, the best place for bamboo is an eastern part of a house.
The healthing properties of bamboo plant are widespread in medicine and cosmetics. Bamboo is a basic material for massage sticks, brooms, and accessories for baths and saunas. The leaves of bamboo are used as medicines — antipyretics, extract from bamboo pulp is an excellent alleviating and expectorant drugs in case of upper airways diceases; bamboo juice is considered an excellent abluent and renewing agent.
BAMBOO CARE. GROWING BAMBOO
Very rearly we can meet real bambusa at home. And it\s not because growing bamboo at home is something too gard to do. There are two main reasons why bamboo for home is so rear in our gardens and apartments.
The first reason is quite cold winters. The sprouts frostproof bamboos without covering are able to withstand frost up to -18-20 Celsius degrees, therefore very often the parts of the sprouts above the level of snow cover freeze. In spring young sprouts arise, but getting a bamboo grove of full value is very uneasy, as without proper care bamboo plants will soon be unable to grow further. You may either cover the plantation with a shroud of fallen leaves and fir twigs, or grow bamboo in containers with moving them indoor during the winter. Such a way of bamboo growing is acceptable for plants from tropic and subtropic climate where average temperature doesn’t vary too much. For bamboos that come from areas with more severe climate moving bamboo plants to a room with dry and warm air leaves the plant without its essential cold period of life, and the leaves of such a room bamboo can wilt. The leaves of a bambusa plant are an indicator of correct clumping bamboo care. If bambusa turns yellow, the leaves began curling, it indicates lack of moisture for bamboos from tropics or overflow with moisture at low temperatures for the plants from the temperate climate.
The second reason is aggression of a bamboo plant. Each spring bamboo grass releases new side sprouts, and new plants grow from them. If this growth is not stopped, bambusa will take all the surrounding area. There are some methods of reducing this aggression. To do it, you should limit the growth of side roots which give birth to these new sprouts, or disallowing these young branches to grow. Most often the ditch 1.5 ft is digged on the perimeter of the area where bamboo grows, and the walls of the ditch are strengthened with a solid plastic which can resist significant temperature difference. This barrier doesn’t allow roots to grow sideways. Root sprouts of bamboo growing above the barriers are cut. If you won’t place plastic to the walls of the ditch, you should watch the roots appearing in the ditch. These roots should be regularly cut. In countries where bamboo plant originally grows they mow bamboo sprouts like grass while they are not yet too solid. In such a way, the vital cycle of the plant is interrupted, and the territory of its growth is limited. You can also limit the activity of bamboo plant growing tempo by breaking young “shooting” sprouts with a chopper or even by a shoe.
You can buy bamboo plant in a container, as it’s easier because bambusa’s way of reproduction is vegetative or scissiparity, or you can buy seed of bambusa, however, its germinating capability is about 40%, so growing bamboo from seed is rather more difficult.
Selecting proper place for the plantation is very important. Water here must not stagnate. Bamboo grass likes to drink, but doesn’t like to be wet. The diameter and depth of a pit must be twice as big as the retaining cone. The floor of the pit must be drained, and you should place a mixture of soil and rotten manure there if the soil is not fertile enough. You shouldn’t do too deep when planting. The retaining cone is covered by a mixture of soil and compost from the sides, and after it is watered a lot. It will be very good to powder all it with mulch then. It protects the roots from drying and eases the adaptation period of the bamboo plant.
If you plant bamboo to a pot, you should use a wide container (not a deep one) with a diameter twice as big as a clod with the plant. If you plant seed, you should plant them to a single place at once without transplanting it in the future.
How to care of the “home bamboo”? Providing enough soil moisture and avoiding water stagnation near the roots; the first condition is resolved by in-time watering, the second — by choosing a proper place for the plantation (marsh land is not the right choice) and organizing a good drain in a pit or a container.
During the first year after planting there is no need in fertilize the soil, further bambusa is nourished with a complex fertile containing nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in equal proportion; in summer — twice per month, in other seasons — once per three months.
Good illumination and enough amount of direct sunbeams are very important for the health of a bamboo plant.
You can design your bamboo plantation’s look whatever you like. It is achieved by cutting. If you cut the top of a plant, it won’t grow any higher then, but the amount of leaves will grow slightly, thus you can get a plant of a very original shape. Bambusa should be cut 2 inches higher the selected node. There are some bamboo species with a lot of side branches. These branches also should be cut so that they won’t grow further. In such a way, you can make your bambusa looking tree-like.
If you allow bambusa to grow free, it is able to create solid green fences, and if you thin the plantation out, you can get a grove where you can feel free to walk among the “trees”.
HOME BAMBOO
Most often you can see dracaena Sanderiana sold in flower shops as room
bamboo, decorative bamboo for home, dracaena lucky bamboo and so on. This original decorative plant and bambusa have nothing in common. Only a nodose body of dracaena, which is often screwed to a spiral, looks like ornamental bamboo. Such decorative bamboo can be grown both in the water and in the soil. You’d better search for how to grow dracaena lucky bamboo, or how to care of a house bamboo on the specific sites dedicated to dracaena.
If your aim is growing bamboo (the real bambusa) as a house plant, you should better buy bamboo from tropical or subtropical climate, where the average annual temperature doesn’t vary a lot. Creating appropriate conditions for sych a decorative bamboo is much easier in the apartments with central heating. However, without proper care bamboo won’t live long.
The planting container should be wide (twice as wide as the clod with the roots of a plant). The floor of the container must be drained. You can use common garden soil with adding some compost. Decorative bamboo will grow well in such a container, till it occupies all free space, and after it you should transplant it to a more spacious container. If its further growth is undesirable, room bamboo is drawn from the container, a third part of its roots is cut, the soil is replaced with the new one, and the bamboo plant is put to the same container. If it isn’t done, decorative bamboo turns yellow, loses its leaves, and then withers.
The place where you want to grow bamboo at home must be well illuminated, with enough amount of direct sunbeams, and without drafts.
House bamboo is watered as far as the soil gets dry, sometimes splashing bambusa is useful. In summer house bamboo is growing better outdoors: on a balcony, terrace or in the garden.
