For middle-class homeowners, bamboo is mother nature’s natural fencing, offering almost instant privacy with not a drop of creosote or a concrete post required.
The leafy canes, which sway gently in the breeze, offer English gardens an exotic aesthetic while blending in with existing foliage.
For those gardeners who’ve holidayed in Japan – where bamboo is held in such high regard that it’s considered unlucky to chop it back, it’s also a visual reminder of adventures overseas.
And if the nation’s poshest nurseries are selling many varieties of the fast-growing Asian evergreen, is it any wonder so many of them find a home in upmarket gardens?
What the labels at upmarket nurseries don’t usually divulge – why would they when they’re selling them for up to £90 a pot? – is just how invasive bamboo can be.
However, one garden’s natural screening can soon become another’s worst nightmare, with the grass plant, which requires little light – only water, darting in new directions at an alarming rate.
Memories of travels to Japan: Bamboo planting in the UK has become increasingly common, with many homeowners preferring a screen of the leafy cane to a fence panel
However, the Asian evergreen can grow extremely quickly, and is strong enough to break through patios and even into homes (Pictured: Bamboo growing under a kitchen floor in North London)
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Just how encroaching can it be?
While it’s not in the same league as perennial weed Japanese Knotweed, which can strike down up to 20 metres – and undo a property deal in seconds, bamboo can still spread far, wide and quickly, puncturing through patios and brickwork in a matter of weeks.
Nicknamed ‘green steel’, the plant is stronger than steel and can reach up to 28 thousand pounds per square inch of tensile strength.
Bamboo isn’t classified as an invasive species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, but homeowners can still risk punishment if their plants run amok.
In the most extreme cases, that comes in the form of a Community Protection Notice (CPN) – otherwise known as an ASBO.
It spreads through underground stems called rhizomes, which can form a colony, creating new shoots, sometimes metres away from the original plant.
‘Clumping’ bamboo is considered less invasive than ‘running’ bamboo, although it can still end up being a problem, often more than a decade after a homeowner has planted it.
Thomas Vinojan, who founded Bamboo Experts with his brother five years ago after the plant caused chaos in his own back garden, says he was once called to help a family who received an almighty shock after returning from holiday.
‘After a fortnight away, they came home to find the oven in their kitchen had been pushed out.’
The bamboo had forced the integrated kitchen appliance out of position, he explains.
While bamboo isn’t currently on the invasive species list under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, it certainly is invasive (Pictured: Bamboo growing into a living room in Hampshire)
In Hampshire, this house was found to have the fast-growing plant behind the oven in the home’s kitchen
Another customer, a Japanese man, called him in when the plant threatened to overtake his garden…but refused to get rid of the bamboo completely, because having a patch of it is considered good luck in his homeland.
Bamboo expert Billy Leaver runs Surrey Bamboo Removal and says he’s been busier than ever with calls for help in the last two years – despite awareness growing over just how quickly bamboo can spread.
To handle encroachment, he uses root barriers, rather than herbicides – although that’s needed in some cases – to fix invasive bamboo, charging up to around £1,200 a day.
He explains: ‘Bamboo doesn’t travel very deep, it’s quite a shallow plant. The depth of a root barrier varies depending on the job, but they tend to sit, anywhere from 0.7 metres to a metre in depth.’
Billy Leaver’s company Surrey Bamboo Removal uses root barriers to send encroaching bamboo back to where it came from (Pictured: The plant cracking through a kitchen floor tile)
Roots: Bamboo grows in shallow, fertile soil – with ‘running bamboo’ the most invasive because it can spread quickly and horizontally…meaning it can pop up elsewhere far from its original site
The root barrier is placed into the ground straight, and is slightly curved at the bottom, which sends the bamboo back in the direction it came from.
‘Any bamboo that is encroaching would hit that barrier and then would just be manoeuvered and guided elsewhere, as opposed to using harsh killers, such as a herbicide treatment, to kill it off.’
The expert says big property development areas that have sprung up in the last 20 years are often a prime site for bamboo spreading quickly.
They were – and still are – put in, he says, to make properties look greener more quickly.
‘I go to some property developments where they’re building 200-plus houses and they’ve got bamboo in, methodically situated around the area.
‘It’s a quick screener, it grows quickly – so it does the job nice and quick. From an aesthetic point of view, bamboo gives that slight exotic feel too.’
Making short work of a patio…bamboo can punch through cracks in paving stones easily
Should garden centres be more responsible with the labelling of potentially invasive plants?
Yes, says the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chief Horticulturist, Guy Barter, who advises gardeners to ask staff before taking bamboo home – or check the variety on the RHS website.
He tells the Daily Mail: ‘If I was buying the bamboo and I hadn’t looked it up on the RHS website, I’d ask garden centre staff to look it up for me.
‘If you’re buying it from a specialist nursery, they can tell you with a high degree of assurance.’
He adds that it’s important not to be ‘alarmist’ over bamboo, saying: ‘There can be cases when there’s problems but by and large, bamboo is a useful garden plant – it’s not like Japanese knotweed, which is an absolute beast.’
‘No one wants to plant something you’re going to regret later, but there’s a few simple countermeasures you can take at the outset, to ensure things don’t get out of hand.’
The message is getting through, says Leaver, on how to handle bamboo.
He says: ‘I have noticed that the people who are planting it now are correctly planting it – they’re putting a root barrier around it or they’re putting it in the ground in a plant pot actually made for bamboo – with drainage holes on the side, not the bottom – or it’s upground in a pot.’
Is it still worth planting with care? Absolutely, says RHS Chief Horticulturist Barter:
‘They need no care, they get no diseases…and bamboo has the most wonderful stems. There’s ones with black stems, yellow stems.
‘They’re a gorgeous plant, and they’ve got lovely, elegant, slender grass-like leaves that make a lovely rustling sound in the wind.’
