{"id":2092,"date":"2020-11-16T14:34:30","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T14:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gardendad.co.uk\/?p=2092"},"modified":"2020-11-18T15:50:17","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T15:50:17","slug":"how-to-prune-bamboo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gardendad.co.uk\/how-to-prune-bamboo\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Prune Bamboo {A Simple Guide}"},"content":{"rendered":"
Bamboo is a lovely plant to have in your garden – it has attractive, leafy foliage; redolent of an exotic garden somewhere in Asia; and it acts as an excellent screen. However, bamboo does grow very well<\/a>. And it tends to spread. And\u2026 spread a bit more. Eek!<\/p>\n You may be staring at your forest, wondering how to prune bamboo so that it stays healthy and attractive, yet doesn\u2019t take over your entire garden. Well, we are here to answer that very question.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You don\u2019t actually have <\/em>to prune bamboo. You can just leave it as it is, and it will be fine. It will grow, and be quite happy being completely left alone. Some gardens can cope with having a natural looking bamboo screen about the place, and a bit of the wild and wonderful will add to the appeal.<\/p>\n However, some people like a more tightly controlled bamboo plantation, or have a smaller garden which cannot afford to be completely taken over by one plant.<\/p>\n Also, the bamboo plant does really benefit from a good trim every now and again – not only will this help to train the bamboo the way you want it to go, but it will make it healthier and can reduce the potential for disease.<\/p>\n Trimming it back can really enhance the aesthetics of the plant; for example to showcase some attractive stems, or the new growth of leaves in between the stems.<\/p>\n Trimming the bamboo will also help you to keep it under control and allow you to train the bamboo to the shape that you want. Bamboo topiary, anyone?<\/p>\n There are a few different ways to prune bamboo, depending on the reason you want to prune it, and the type of bamboo you have. When you first start to prune, you should always identify which stems you wish to cut, and mark them with paint or a dark maker pen to ensure you cut the right ones.<\/p>\n When removing the stems, cut them as close to the ground as possible, to keep the plant looking as tidy as possible, and to prevent anybody tripping over them!<\/p>\n To simply maintain bamboo and keep it healthy, just trim it so that it looks the way you want it to – either into shapes, or just as a leafy screen. This is as simple as removing dead growth, and pruning stems that have grown too tall and leggy.<\/p>\n Dead branches can be cut off at the base, whereas if you are removing part of a stem then cut it above the node, so that it will grow new shoots.<\/p>\n If your bamboo is looking too clumpy, you can thin it out by removing some of the wider stems on the outside of the plants.<\/p>\n If you want to thin some of the taller branches that are leaning over, cut them just above a node, so that the length is reduced but the stem doesn\u2019t die back. This has the added bonus of being able to make the plant stand more upright and give it more strength.<\/p>\n Bamboo makes a great hedge plant, as it is tall and makes a fantastic and attractive screen. It is simple to do this with bamboo; you pretty much just need to maintain it and allow it to grow in its natural way, but remember that most of bamboo\u2019s new growth happens in Spring. So you need to wait for the canes to produce all their new growth before you prune, and do this later on in the season.<\/p>\n Some bamboos have very colourful attractive stems which you may want to showcase. You can show these off against a plain coloured wall, or add a screen to offset the colours of the bamboo stems.<\/p>\n To do this type of pruning, just remove the lower leaves and branches to the height that you want them, removing them at the point that they grow from the stem.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Small snippers <\/strong>work great at cutting away thin little branches or the larger leaves. These are perfect for the smaller twigs and branches, or just the leaves that are starting to yellow.<\/p>\nWhy prune bamboo?<\/h2>\n
How to prune bamboo?<\/h2>\n
A. Maintenance pruning<\/h3>\n
B. Pruning to thin<\/h3>\n
C. Pruning for a hedge<\/h3>\n
D. \u201cLegging up\u201d<\/h3>\n
Best tools for pruning bamboo<\/h2>\n