I am considering planting some bamboo in a wet area near the neighbor’s yard. Right now, there are spruce planted in that area. I’m worried the bamboo will edge out the spruce, and I’m worried the bamboo might get into the neighbor’s yard. The species I’m considering is Phyllostachys atrovaginata, which is supposed to do fine in zone 5 (my zone in the Hudson Valley region of New York), and tolerate wet ground. What do you think?
The American Bamboo Society has a useful general article(now archived) on growing bamboo species in the Northeastern U.S. One thing the article says is that there are very few temperate (as opposed to tropical) bamboo species which will do well in wet conditions. Here is another article(now archived) about growing bamboo in Massachusetts, and another article(now archived) about controlling bamboo, which is essential if you plant a running bamboo–especially if it’s planted close to your neighbor’s property!
I do have an idea about how you can plant a running bamboo so that it will not invade your neighbor’s side of the property line, and so it will have improved drainage: what about planting it in a raised bed or container? I’ve seen this done, in a high and long raised bed along a property line, planted with running Phyllostachys.
The species you are interested in, Phyllostachys atrovaginata [also called incense bamboo], is described in an article in American Nurseryman, v.208, n. 7, 2008, as reaching 20-35 feet tall. It does tolerate (or require) moist conditions, as you say. It is hardy to zone 5b, and sustains no winter damage at -5 degrees F but culms will die back at -15 and regenerate new shoots in spring. It is a vigorous spreader, and needs “a width of at least 5 feet to provide a sustainably managed screen or specimen in a lawn. A rhizome access trench (1 foot wide by 1 foot deep, backfilled with sand) provides easy access to the rhizomes for routine inspection and extraction. Inspect three times throughout the growing season. Neglect causes unwanted spread, resulting in a garden thug.” It also prefers full sun, which might not be available in your garden if it is planted in the shade of the spruce trees.
To my reading, this sounds like a lot of work, when it might be easier to plant a hardy clumping bamboo in a container or raised bed–no worries about wet soil, or about invading the neighbor’s garden, and some even tolerate partial shade.
Here is another American Bamboo Society article(now archived) with suggestions for noninvasive clumping bamboo for the Northeast.
Excerpt:
“These plants do not tolerate full sun, but prefer to be understory plants, with overhead canopy above. Cooler, morning sun is acceptable, but hot, midday sun causes the curling of the leaves. Good woody companions are rhododendron, pine, hemlock, leucothoe. Good herbaceous companions are hosta, epimedium, vinca minor, hakonechloa, ceratostigma.”
- Fargesia nitida – Fountain Bamboo, and its many cultivars nitida ‘de Belder’, ‘McClure’, ‘Nymphenburg’, ‘Wakehurst’: Hardy to minus 20 degrees F – Heights to 18 feet
- Fargesia murielae – Umbrella Bamboo: Hardy to minus 20 degrees F – Height to 15 feet
- Fargesia dracocephala: Hardy to minus 10 degrees F – Height to 15 feet
- Fargesia robusta: Hardy to zero degrees F – Height to 20 feet
- Fargesia rufa: Hardy to zero degrees F – Height to 10 feet