Gardener's Guide To Growing Temperate Bamboos

Michael Bell

Editions

Review

It is hardly possible these days to open a gardening magazine or watch a horticultural programme on TV without finding someone banging on about bamboos.  True, they do have much to recommend them; their unique rustling foliage and structural qualities, their brightly-coloured glossy stems, even their spectacular rate of growth mark them out as exceptionally useful garden plants.

Michael Bell has produced a splendid addition to the “Gardener’s Guide” series where both text and pictures are presented in a way that is both informative and entertaining.  Did we know, for example, that in some countries live rats are used to hollow out bamboo canes?  The myth that “all bamboos flower at the same time” is exploded and the question, “Can I prevent them from flowering?” is answered.  You can’t.

There is much sound advice on cultivation and propagation, and identification is dealt with in a generous A-Z segment (nomenclature is, I fear, far from clear and many synonyms abound to confuse an already difficult genus).  There are interesting listings of nurseries where we can buy, and gardens where we can see bamboos as well as details of other books on the subject and details of international societies should we become avid devotees of this beguiling group of exotics.

Mr Bell has produced a work which is a pleasure to read as well as use and it will be as welcome by the bed as in the potting shed. - review by Stewart Grimshaw