Yellow bamboo – planting and care
Yellow bamboo, also known as golden cane bamboo, is a hardy and beautiful plant that does not spread wildly, making it a grateful plant in the garden. You can use it as a privacy screen and hedge, let it grow together in groups or let it stand alone.
Scientific name (Latin): Fargesia murielae
Other names: Yellow bamboo, golden reed bamboo, umbrella bamboo
Family: Grass family (Poaceae)
Planting and caring for yellow bamboo
Yellow bamboo is an easy-care plant, and most of the time it does well on its own without you having to do anything. However, it can be a bit vulnerable during the transition between seasons, as yellow bamboo can be affected by frost in the ground when the warm spring sun is out. This can cause yellow bamboo to suffer from frost drought, and this is best avoided by protecting the plants from the sun until the frost in the ground is gone. As a preventive measure, you can cover the plants with some leaves in the fall. Yellow bamboo also does not need to be pruned unless it is needed for other reasons.
Planting yellow bamboo
To give yellow bamboo the best conditions for growth, it is recommended to plant three or four yellow bamboos per meter, at least if you want a hedge. Yellow bamboo also thrives best in rich, well-drained soil – regular potting soil works just fine. There is no major reason to fertilize yellow bamboo, as the plant is lush in itself. If you still want to do so to ensure the best possible result, it is recommended to use garden fertilizer and cow manure. Yellow bamboo is best planted in the spring.
A great framing of the garden with yellow bamboo
Many people today choose to use yellow bamboo as a hedge, which offers many advantages. With its naturally fast growth, it is usually quicker to get a nice and tall hedge, and the dense growth pattern creates an effective privacy screen that not only looks decorative, but also retains its leaves throughout the year.
Yellow bamboo is also suitable around terraces and patios, and makes a pleasant rustling sound when the wind grabs the small, greenish-white leaves that grow on the bamboo stems. Because it is hardy, it is also well suited to our climate, and it thrives best in growing zones 1–4. Yellow bamboo thrives in many different places, both in shade and direct sun, but prefers to stand in partial shade in a place that is partially protected from the winter.
Yellow bamboo also comes in different varieties, which vary in height, which makes it easy to choose a variety that suits a specific location. The Bambu Bimbo variety is significantly more compact and shorter than the others, at just under 150 cm, while the Jumbo variety can grow tall and straight and become approx. 400 cm. There are also other varieties of yellow bamboo where the leaves have a deeper green color (emerald), or where the leaf shoots are red (vampire).
Fun facts
- Available in different varieties, with different lengths
- Belongs to the grass family, as bamboo has many of the same properties as grass
- The most popular bamboo variety in the Western world
- Blooms very rarely, at intervals of 40–120 years
- Like all bamboo, it grows quickly
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