“Whittaker’s engaging writing style and his personal observations make this book a pleasure to read. . . . Recommended for all gardeners in the applicable zones who are interested in trying these plants.” —Library Journal
“This book provides a great introduction to the subject, but even the expert will find much to entertain and enlighten.” —The Garden
“A great guide for bamboo-lovers, who get 175 pages with photos and glossary. For bamboo-haters, Whittaker outlines three ways to control or eliminate out-of-control bamboo.” —Philadelphia Inquirer
“One of the best written, most beautifully illustrated and most useful book for people interested in adding bamboo to their garden. Even die-hard bamboo collectors who think they know it all will find something new and interesting to learn, and they will definitely enjoy the stunning photographs.” —Bamboo and More
With this inspiring, practical guide, Paul Whittaker recommends the best 50 beginner bamboos for a wide range of purposes, sites and conditions. Bamboos are unbeatable garden plants boasting attractive culms, year-round foliage, and rustling charm. They are perfect for adding style to a front entrance, garden or deck, creating an exotic mood, screening eyesores, and providing buffering from noise.
Special features include:
- handy checklists for each plant
- more than 150 colour photographs
- easy-care, problem-free bamboos
- cultivation advice
- design ideas for gardens of all sizes
From the Back Cover
With this inspiring, practical guide, Paul Whittaker recommends the best 50 beginner bamboos for a wide range of purposes, sites and conditions. Bamboos are unbeatable garden plants boasting attractive culms, year-round foliage, and rustling charm. They are perfect for adding style to a front entrance, garden or deck, creating an exotic mood, screening eyesores, and providing buffering from noise.
Special features include:
- handy checklists for each plant
- more than 150 colour photographs
- easy-care, problem-free bamboos
- cultivation advice
- design ideas for gardens of all sizes
About the Author
Paul Whittaker has worked in horticulture for more than thirty years as a nurseryman, landscaper and consultant. With his wife, Diana, he runs a nursery, PW Plants in Norfolk, England, that specializes in ornamental grasses and bamboos. Paul has won many RHS gold medals for his foliage displays at Royal Horticultural Society shows. He also contributes articles to gardening magazines, lectures widely, appears on local radio programs and holds workshops and events at his nursery and garden.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Preface
As the owner of a nursery, visitors to my premises frequently ask me which is my favourite bamboo. After twenty years of growing them, this is never the easiest question to answer. Many of the enquirers are beginners on a quest to acquire their first bamboo, while others are addicts who don’t want to miss out on an essential addition to their collection. Beginner and experienced customers alike use this question as an opening gambit to seek out good advice, which you should never make a bamboo purchase without. This is hopefully also one of the reasons you are reading this book.
Out of some 350 or more temperate bamboos, approximately one quarter of these are normally available for general sale and around half are available in very small quantities annually, invariably from specialist nurseries. The remaining quarter are extremely rare due to difficulty in propagation, finicky growing methods or hoarding by addicted amateurs – to acquire one of these, you will undoubtedly need to go on a waiting list or get involved in some serious bribing and bartering. For the purposes of this book, a number of the generally available bamboos will make up the majority of the selection featured here, with a few rare examples thrown in to whet your appetite for more of a challenge in years to come. All of the bamboos included in this book have been tried and tested. As a group, they are versatile and valuable garden plants that cover a wide range of heights, habits and uses. There are no disappointments here and I often tell my customers that if they don’t succeed with these, they should give up on bamboos completely!
To return to the opening question, I don’t really have a favourite bamboo, although I did write in my previous book, Hardy Bamboos: Taming the Dragon, that Phyllostachys aureosulcata f. spectabilis would be my desert island bamboo, meaning that if I could choose only one, this would be it. To repeat a famous British television slogan, “It does everything it says on the tin,” meaning that this plant has all the characteristics that a good bamboo should: colourful culms (canes), evergreen leaves and it is very hardy and quick to mature so is good value for money. A few years on, I now find it much more difficult to name any one particular bamboo as my favourite. There are many bamboos of hugely varying habit, character and quality that I would not be able to garden successfully without. All of my favourites are easy to recommend because I know the likely success a beginner will have with them, particularly when given the right information and advice to go with them. But be aware, success with bamboos can often become an addiction or an obsession, especially when you experience the individual beauty of bamboos, their ease of cultivation and their speedy transformation of a young plant into maturity. I know, because it has happened to me. After all, supplying a potential failure to someone with no previous experience with bamboos would be a tactless mistake – I’ve often been known to withhold or hide the rare and the difficult, even though very beautiful, from those new to bamboo, so failure is never an option.
However, the plants aside, the main object of this book is to portray and present a range of bamboos worthy of almost any garden situation. This reminds me of the second question I am most frequently asked, “Can you recommend a bamboo for...?” This question is invariably followed by one or more of a huge range of requests, such as screening from neighbours or eyesores, windbreaks, groves for the children to play in, pots on patios and roof gardens, pond-side features, preventing erosion on slopes or just for general use. These are just some of the different qualities my customers look for (and find) in bamboos.
During the last five decades, the way we now think, live and garden has dramatically changed. Gardening practices have generally become more adventurous, artistic and even flamboyant in style. Bamboos will undoubtedly continue to play an important part in the ever-changing approaches to modern gardening, but I would, however, urge you not to become too entrenched in “flavour of the month” gardening styles or fashions. In addition to this, don’t overly subscribe to the occasionally brash and/or mordant remarks of the media, which can utterly condemn a style or a particular plant group with a few written words or a brief rant from a garden presenter. These are usually individual preferences and do not stem from truths.
You should start with an understanding of your own preferences, needs and styles, a few ideas to build upon and a little guidance. I am writing this book to help you choose wisely and limit your mistakes, but most of all to enlighten you to the endless possibilities for using bamboos in your garden.
