by Rainer Hoenicke

When something is designated ‘invasive' they mean INVASIVE! Twenty six years ago we moved to our new home in north Napa.  We were especially excited to get an entire U-Haul truck of beloved potted plants situated in the over 1/3 acre of planting beds at our new location. Three of those five-gallon pots contained golden bamboo Phyllostachys aurea that a friend had given us, and we had decided to use them as a privacy hedge along the southern fence-line.

Aware of the invasive nature of this species of running bamboo, I installed a 30 foot long corrugated PVC barrier to keep the three bamboo plants from spreading under the fence to our neighbor's yard and into our former veggie garden area. Little did I know then that the bamboo rhizomes would be worse than Audrey II in the cult movie “Little Shop of Horrors.” Within about three years, those three plants had formed a wonderful privacy screen 20-25 feet high.  Unfortunately the lower branches of this dense hedge-like barrier was hiding the fact that the yellow bamboo rhizomes had found a way to take root in the new soil formed by decomposing leaf litter and to creep over the root barrier.  The invasion of  my former veggie-growing area had begun.

In the last few years the bamboo became diseased and consisted mostly of dead and dying columns that even the house sparrows declined to build nests in. It was therefore no surprise that one of my 2022 New Years' resolutions was to try to get rid of 20 linear feet of dying Phyllostachys aurea and eventually replace it with much tamer and manageable Pittosporum tenuifolium (var. Kohuhu). 

Wow, what a job that was. When a plant is designated "invasive" beware!

 

 

Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143.  Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.

Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.

Photo credits: Rainer Hoenicke

Information Links:

USDA Forest Service-Weed of the week-invasive Golden Bamboo https://www.invasive.org/weedcd/pdfs/wow/golden-bamboo.pdf

University of Arizona Cooperative Extension-Growing Bamboo https://cals.arizona.edu/yavapai/anr/hort/byg/archive/bamboo2019.html

UC ANR-Bamboo http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/PLANTS/bamboo.html

Missouri Botanical Garden-Controlling Bamboo

https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/help-for-the-home-gardener/advice-tips-resources/pests-and-problems/weeds/bamboo

UC IPM- pittosporum http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/PLANTS/pittosporum.html