Let Your Bamboo Stems Shine

4 Written by Lisa on 28th Mar 2011 in Design Tips

I spent the afternoon in the garden yesterday, as the weather was so gorgeous, and I decided it was time to give my bamboo a bit of a haircut!  I planted it 3 years ago and now that it has had time to properly establish and fill the hole that was left when an old fir tree came down, I wanted to expose the lower part of the stems to show off their gorgeous colour.

This is how it looked this morning…

As you can see, the overall look is rather block-like and I really wanted to create some space between the stems to give the corner of the terrace some dimension and highlight the wonderful stems that you just can’t really see.   This bamboo is called Chusquea culeou, a clump forming bamboo which eventually loses it’s lower leaves naturally and has beautiful long stems with feathery leaves that droop over at the top.

In order to strip the canes I used a sharp pair of secateurs and cut the leaves back as close to stem as I could. This is the end result…

At the moment the soil is rather bare each side of the bamboo as the perennials planted there are only just showing their new shoots, but by the time Summer is upon us, and the perennials are in full swing, the stems will create a really wonderful focal point and give depth to the back of the garden.

 

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4 Responses to “Let Your Bamboo Stems Shine”

  1. dan corlett says:

    The stems look great – don’t suppose you can remember the full name of that bamboo? I’m looking for something similar for my garden and that has a real striking appearance

  2. Lisa Cox says:

    It’s a Chusquea Culeou 🙂

  3. Marty Rogers says:

    I never would have thought of featuring bamboo in my garden, but I must say that really does look stunning once it has been given a bit of minor TLC.

    Very lovely Lisa! 🙂

  4. Lisa says:

    Thanks so much Marty!


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Lisa Cox Welcome

I specialise in helping families to turn their gardens into an extension of their home and into a space that can be used and enjoyed all year round.

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