Clumping Bamboos - Very popular and useful for many applications, clumping bamboos grow just as their name implies. These plants' rhizome system grows like an inverted umbrella under the soil, producing new shoots, concentrically, with each annual shoot season, slowly enlarging the plant's circumference as it matures.
While clumping bamboos thrive in our gulf coastal climate, they are among the less cold hardy of the bamboos. The use of our 'tropical' clumping bamboos is primarily limited to New Orleans and the warmer gulf coastal areas of Texas, Missippi, Alabama, and the Florida panhandle. While only 60 miles north of New Orleans, our farm's winter temperatures are too cold to support the growth of tropical clumpers outside of the greenhouse.
Within our cooler micro-climate, Bambusa multiplex subtypes thrive. Hardier than their tropical cousins, our Subtropical Bambusa multiplex clumpers are cold hardy to 18 degrees F. Our last winter's temperature drop to 15 degrees (over one night) burned fresh foliage on some of our exposed multiplexes. But, even with this insult, our plants releafed and grew, unphased, through this year's season.
How Do I Create A Privacy Screen With Bamboo?
Subtropical Clumping Bamboos
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| Bambusa multiplex 'typical' - ('Greenhedge', 'Hedge') |
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| Bambusa multiplex, typical ('Greenhedge' / 'Hedge')
The parent plant to all B. multiplex subtropical clumpers, 'Greenhedge' towers overhead, creating an immense wall of green foliage. This largest clumper can attain 35 feet in height, 10+ feet in base diameter and spread 25+ feet, horizontally, overhead. Planted on 7-8 foot centers, 'Greenhedge' makes an impressive living wall, screen or dramatic entryway statement for any property.
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| Bambusa multiplex 'typical' - ('Greenhedge', 'Hedge') |
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| Base - Bambusa multiplex 'typical' - ('Greenhedge', 'Hedge') |
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| Bambusa multiplex 'Silverstripe' |
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| B. multiplex 'Silverstripe'
A subtly different subtype of B. multiplex, 'Silverstripe' is identified by a thin, narrow silver stripe along the length of the bottom few internodes of its culms. 'Silverstripe' also produces a variegation in a small percentage of its leaves. Slightly smaller in size (25ft+) and with an identical form to its parent, 'Silverstripe' can be utilized in similar scale plantings as 'Greenhedge'.
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| Bambusa multiplex 'Silverstripe' |
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| Bambusa multiplex 'Silverstripe' |
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| Bambusa multiplex 'Willowy' |
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| B. multiplex 'Willowy'
A subtype recognized by the American Bamboo Society, 'Willowy' has extremely subtle differences in the draping effects of its leaf and culm, appearing, otherwise, virtually identical to its parent, 'Greenhedge'.
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| Bambusa multiplex 'Alphonse Karr' |
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| B. multiplex, 'Alphonse Karr'
An eye-catching multiplex subtype, 'Alphonse Karr' is prized for its yellow culms, randomly striped with green. Notably different in shape than its fellow multiplexes, 'Alphonse' maintains its natural 'vase' shape without any cascading foliage. This subtype is slightly smaller than the above, reaching near 25 feet in height and 6-8 feet maximum base diameter in our climate. With its strking color and detail, 'Alphonse Karr' can be used for screening or as an ornamental focal point in garden plantings.
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| Culms - Bambusa multiplex 'Alphonse Karr' |
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| Culms - B. multiplex 'Alphonse Karr' |
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Photo, coming soon!
| B. multiplex
'Golden Goddess'
A well known name and popular plant, 'Golden Goddess' is a mid range sized clumping bamboo. Reaching 25+ feet in height at maturity and 6-8 feet maximum base diameter in our climate, this subtype appears much like a smaller scale variant of 'Greenhedge'.
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| B. multiplex 'Riviereorum' ('Chinese Goddess') |
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| B. multiplex 'Riviereorum'
('Chinese Goddess')
Our clumping bamboo workhorse, B. multiplex 'Riviereorum' is an amazingly useful bamboo. Our smallest subtype, reaching only 12-16 feet maximum height and ~4-5 feet maximum base diameter, 'Riviereorum' serves many needs.
Smaller, delicate leaves and culms cascade out in a mounding, 'fountain' shape. When incorporated into existing tree lines and plantings, Riviereorum provides unobtrusive evergreen screening, while blending quietly with surrounding native foliage.
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| B. multiplex 'Riviereorum' Foliage |
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| As our smallest clumping bamboo, 'Riviereorum' can also be easily maintained as a shaped or boxed evergreen hedge. Its delicately textured leaves 'dance' in the slightest breeze, adding a sense of lush coolness to the landscape.
When used to create a living partition, Riviereorum should be planted on 3-4 foot centers. When spaced in this way, the growing clumps will become an impenetrable mass down to the soil level, preventing even small animals from crossing its barrier.
Please see our newly planted display screen, below.
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| Chinese Goddess Field Dug Divisions |
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| Clipped into a Boxed Bamboo Hedge |
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