Bamboo Plants Care - Do Bamboos Grow in Shade

Bamboo plants are undemanding and low maintenance, but neglect is the main cause of yellowing or curling leaves. This stress can result in losing your plants. In this article, you will find out How to maintain bamboo plants and revive them if the leaves turn yellow.

When working in the bamboo garden, you'll need these hand tools.

Care for bamboo plants

Bamboo plants are undemanding and low maintenance. They do not need much attention all year round, but they’ll appreciate a bit of mulch and water once in a while. 

The best time to attend to your bamboo plants is early in spring when the growth is prominent. 5 maintenance tasks you can do to care for your bamboo plants are:

• Add mulch
• Remove the old stems
• Prune the old branches
• Add slug pallets to protect new shoots

If you have not built a bamboo barrier, check out the article which is packed full of practical tips for building and maintaining bamboo root barriers.

   Build a bamboo root barrier

When is the best time to maintain bamboo plants?

Bamboos are hardy plants. They like to rest in autumn and winter. The best time to maintain your bamboo plants is late spring. This is when there is a lot of activity under the ground. 

Prune the plants by removing the dead branches and stems. Add mulch to the grove. That’s all you can do. Your efforts will be rewarded early in summer with lots of new shoots and a vibrant bamboo grove.

How to revive bamboo leaves turning yellow or curl?

The leaves of the bamboo plants are a good indicator of the plants’ health. The leaves will show signs of stress if they are not happy by turning yellow or curling. 

Quick actions will stop the plants from dying completely. The main causes of stress in bamboo plants are lack of nutrients in the soil or waterlogged soils. 

Others include temperature variation and insect and dust infestations. Here is a detailed article on how to revive bamboo leaves yellowing or curling.

What bamboo plants grow in shade?

This is a question that we see appear many times in chats and forums. There is no need to worry about shade because most bamboo plants are shade tolerant. Though some bamboo plants prefer 5 – 7 hours of light, most bamboo plants will thrive in shade and part shade. 

As a general rule, you should plant the variegated, black bamboo, golden yellow bamboo, red bamboo and other coloured bamboo plants in sites where there is enough direct to indirect light. The colours are often more prolific in the light than in the shade.

Yet, the variegated and coloured bamboo plants will still do well in shade to part shade.

Here is an example of bamboo plants used effectively as undercover plants at Bleinheim Palace, Oxford, UK.

Watch the video of the Secret Garden at the palace on YouTube.