How to Cultivate Grasses and Bamboos

Grasses and bamboo have become popular in gardens over the last few years for very good reasons. They have elegant and architectural forms, long seasons of interest and need little attention. Grasses and bamboo can also cope with a certain amount of drought, an invaluable quality in the modern garden. They bring movement and a luminous quality into garden planting as they sway in the wind and their leaves catch the sunlight.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

How to Cultivate Grasses

1. Learn about grasses and bamboo. The grass family (Gramineae), which includes bamboos, have rounded, hollow stems with regularly placed swellings or nodes from which the leaves appear. The flowers of grasses are small but are often held in large, showy panicles, spikes or plumes or stiff poker-like heads, well above the leaves.

2. 
   Choose color contrasting grasses for a spectacular effect.

   Select grasses for muted colors. Although they lack bright colors, their golds, browns, greens and yellows catch the sun, producing beautiful subtle effects. Their arching stems, feathery flowers and subtle coloring can create marvelous displays, whether used as individual specimens or grouped together. Many have attractive flowers and seed heads that appear in midsummer and last well into winter.

3. Choose grasses for effect. It is important to choose the right grasses for a particular effect. Clump-forming upright growers, such as varieties of Calamagrostis, will preside over lower growing plants but lose all impact if crowded by plants of equal height. More open grasses, such as Paricum virgatum with loose flower and seed heads, can be used with taller perennials because of their almost transparent quality.

4. Grow grasses in coastal areas. Almost all grasses are invaluable grown in coastal or seaside gardens. Their ethereal quality seems to match that of the sea; they can cope well with wind and salt spray and are at home in a sandy and pebbly environment. The taller ones can be used for structure, the smaller ones for foliage, color and for filling gaps.

5. Dedicate areas to grasses. Grasses make great borders, especially in the winter long after flowers have lost there bloom. If you have enough space, consider creating your own grass garden with contrasting varieties. This works best in an open area with the benefit of sun exposure.

How to Cultivate Bamboos

6. 

   Learn about bamboo. Bamboo belongs to the grass family (Gramineae). They are evergreen, with woody hollow stems called culms, and narrow, handsome foliage. Bamboos make excellent architectural plants; even when used as screens or hedges, they make a dramatic statement in any garden.

7. Give bamboo shade. Some bamboos form clumps and make good specimen plants or focal points. They will grow in any dry, sheltered, shady spot and can create a lush tropical effect together with other evergreen shrubs. The tall vertical culms make interesting contrasts with the fronded foliage of ferns.

8. Give bamboo plenty of space. Most bamboos need plenty of space, since the larger ones will grow up to 13 feet tall and many arch over 20 feet, but there are also some dwarf species.

9. Grow bamboo in containers. Bamboos can look superb when well grown in large containers. Terracotta and glazed Chinese pots are suitable but the plants can look just as stately grown in galvanized cans and buckets.

10. Protect bamboo from the wind. Bamboos need a sheltered spot, protected from the wind, or they will lose excessive water. Although fully hardy, a bamboo in a container can suffer from drought in winter, and it is wise to insulate the pot with fleece or plastic bubble wrap.

Tips & Warnings

• Bamboo is susceptible to drought during the winter.
• Most species of bamboo are invasive and should be monitored.