[SmithyCottages]

Possibly a mad thought on the way to work this week. But selling plant supports appears to be very big business at present - well it was at the Holker garden show. Anyway is there anything to be gained in growing my own bamboo instead of buying supports or would I be in danger of introducting a further invasive plant?

[JayG]

Just make sure you choose a "clumping" variety; the clump gets larger every year but it won't rampage across the plot like the non-clumping varieties do!

You obviously also need to choose one of the larger-stemmed varieties which of course tend to make them quite large plants.

[Goosegirl]

I would get specialist advice as some can be very - and I mean - very invasive. If they produce the sort of canes you want, then I suspect they will be - er - very vigorous!!

[Endymion]

We've got a huge clump of bamboo in our garden, it runs through to next door too. Not sure which house grew it, but we both use it in our gardens and it's a fairly decent screen too.

It's massively tall, the tallest canes are probably 20+ feet although the top few feet are just a mass of little stems and leaves. The stems are about 3/4 inch diameter at the base.

It seems to grow and regenerate fairly quickly, although I wouldn't like to say how long it takes a single cane to reach full height.

We just cut it as and when it's needed, and test bending it because some if it is too soft to be of any use. We've managed to make a few fairly basic structures with it whilst it's green, including a rather Heath Robinson archway - the longest cane we used spanned the whole thing - about seven foot high and about six foot wide.

[SUTTY1]

I use my own bamboo for plant supports.
I find it tends to rot if used green, so i cut in the winter and hang it in the green-house to dry, dont cut he leaf stems off but remove the leaves when dry they make a great mulch

As said before do check variety carefully many do run wild!

[Endymion]

We find it lasts a bit longer if it's cut at the leaf nodes/joints.

[SUTTY1]

I'll try that. Never really looked were i cut it