Best Types of Bamboo For Screening in Australia
While there are many types of plant options for screening, choosing bamboo for screening is, surely, the best choice because bamboo is one of the most rapidly growing plants hitting your desired height in no time. It can also be easily adjusted to occupy a small space, and, cost-wise, it is a convenient idea to achieve a quick, affordable screening to your desired view. Bamboo possesses the perfect combination of strength, hardness, natural beauty and delicate shape. More importantly, bamboo acclimatizes itself to different weather conditions easily.
Criteria of selecting bamboo for screening
It is important to choose the type of bamboo that matches your criteria. Prior to purchasing a screening plant, you must construct your own criteria of the desired screening bamboo plant to not only be suitable to screen your desired view, but also to fulfil your needs in terms of its appearance and design.
Another reason why choosing bamboo for screening is the ideal choice, in addition to the already aforementioned ones, is that many bamboo types have a variety of different criteria to select from. Some of these criteria variety include:
Types of bamboo for screening
There are 2 main types of bamboo you can choose from, clumping bamboo and running bamboo. Clumping bamboo is a perfect bamboo for screening because it is a noninvasive bamboo that grows gradually without uncontrollable expansion and with the individual’s ability to control its growth easily. As for the running bamboo, it is the invasive type of bamboo that non-uniformly expands in growth growing enormously through its runners that expand underground. However, it is still considered a good bamboo for screening if either a planter or a root barrier is used.
Bamboo colour
A second diverse criterion that would encourage you to choose bamboo for screening is that bamboo has a variety of colours that you can choose from.
Bamboo comes in green, yellow, brown, red, black, blue, and even a combination of all these colours! Having such a colourful appearance is one of the spectacular merits to choosing bamboo for screening.
Size and height of the bamboo
It is important to determine how high and big you would like the screening plant to grow into. This is to provide you with the adequate desirable screening.
Delightfully, different types of bamboo have different heights which they can grow up to. Some bamboo types can grow beyond 30 m high, and their diameters can be as wide as 30 cm!
Bamboo’s climate conditions
Your chosen screening plant’s climate conditions must be suitable to your desired planting location’s climate. One of the merits to choosing bamboo for screening is that different bamboo types have different weather conditions to grow into so you can choose the bamboo which is suitable for your region’s climate.
This protects the bamboo from dying due to growing in a climate it is sensitive to. It also prevents the bamboo from not growing big enough to screen your desired view.
Bamboo’s care instructions
In order to make sure that your selected screening plant grows adequately to perfectly screen your desired area, it is important to adhere to the screening bamboo’s care instructions, and accordingly, it is necessary to select the screening plant that has the care instructions that would be convenient to you.
Bamboo plants have different care instructions varying from one type to another which can give you a range of bamboo types to choose from. Watering instructions, exposure & non-exposure to sunlight, fertilization, and many others, are all inclusive of the bamboo’s care instructions. This makes choosing bamboo for screening a feasible choice.
Longer span of life
Despite the fact that several plant types can perfectly serve as screening plants, they do not last long because of having a short life span, which makes them inconvenient and costly. However, it is very convenient to choose bamboo for screening because bamboo has a long life span. Bamboo can live hundreds of years and averagely flowers every 80 years!
Withstanding tough weather
Many people choose bamboo for screening because it is resistant to extreme weather conditions. It can withstand extreme hot weather, cold temperatures up to -20 F, as well as drought, wind and snow by bending over and lying flat on the floor.
Fast growing
While other screening plants can take years to grow enough to screen your desired view, bamboo is popular for being one of the most rapidly growing plants compared to other screening plants. Bamboo once scored a new record of growth rate, growing 47 inches in one day! Given such a speedy growth rate, choosing bamboo for screening is definitely a go-for choice.
Bamboo for screening is sustainable
In a climate changing world, sustainability is a major criterion to look for when choosing plants. Choosing bamboo for screening is a very sustainable choice. This is because several bamboo types usually do not require pesticides, having to replant it would be very rare, and its oxygen production is very high surpassing even that of trees.
Additionally, it is a good solution to soil erosion and the type of fibre it is produced into causes less impact on the environment than other fibre forms. Thus, having bamboo for screening is not only a pleasant method to provide natural screening, but also is an environmentally-friendly choice.
Bamboo for screening is healthy
Having bamboo for screening in your house can be beneficial to your health. Bamboo Kun is a bioagent found in bamboo plants that serves as an anti-bacterial. Bamboo gets rid of more than 70% of the bacteria that grows on it.
It is very rare that a bamboo would undergo infestation by pests and accordingly, bamboo would rarely require pesticides that would be dangerous for your health.
Bamboo for screening is aesthetic
Having bamboo screening plants can serve as a beautiful natural decoration to your home. Bamboo has multiple colors and different unique shapes that all make it an attractive bamboo for screening adding an aesthetic touch to your house.
Recommended Types of Bamboo for Screening:
Blue Chungii/Tropical Blue Bamboo:
It is the perfect bamboo for screening if you are looking for bamboo of an attractive color. Blue Chungii is a clumping bamboo that has culms with a blue hue, which has contributed to its name. Being a perfect bamboo for screening goes beyond just its culms’ unique blue hues as it can grow up to 12 m high and 5 cm wide and can grow in either sunlight or shade. More importantly, it can withstand temperatures as low as 20 F.
Bambusa Malingensis/Seabreeze bamboo:
Similar to the Blue Chungii bamboo, Bambusa Malingensis is a clumping bamboo that can grow in either sunlight or shade and can grow to about 9-11 m in height and 6 cm in diameter. However, what makes it stand out as a splendid bamboo for screening is that it can endure cold weather, drought, wind, floods, and even salty air.
Phyllostachys Humilis/Scottish Bamboo:
In addition to Blue Chungii, another colourful bamboo for screening is the Phyllostachys Humilis. It is an initially red running bamboo that turns into mint green as it grows and eventually turns yellow green. Witnessing transformations of natural colours as the bamboo grows is why Phyllostachys Humilis is surely a must-have!
Phyllostachys Decora:
Phyllostachys Decora is a running bamboo that stands out from all the other bamboo types. It is called the beautiful bamboo because of its multicolored beauty. Its culms have a combination of several colors, including yellow, red, green, cream, and maroon.
It also stands out as one of the bamboo plants that can endure both hot and cold weather without having its appealing appearance affected. This is the suitable bamboo for screening if you live in locations that are liable to extreme weather conditions at any given time.
Phyllostachys Rubromarginata/Red Margin Bamboo:
If you need a bamboo for screening that would provide screening as fast as possible, Phyllostachys Rubromarginata is the eligible one. Phyllostachys Rubromarginata is an extremely fast grower that produces the highest number of culms annually compared to any other bamboo type. It grows to give shoots with a red sheath.
Even though it grows better when it is exposed to sunlight, its culms grow taller and their colours are more appealing when it grows in the shade. It is a running bamboo that grows up to 18 m in height and about 5 cm in diameter. It possesses sufficient endurance to cold temperatures up to -5 F and dry winds.
“Discover the incredible world of bamboo and unlock its limitless potential. Join us at Red Cloud Bamboo, your trusted partner in all things bamboo. Contact us today at 0418 552 170 to explore the possibilities. Or check out our blog for more information about bamboo. Let’s embrace the resilience and beauty of bamboo together!”
