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About Us
     ● The Business
     ● Dain Sansome, Owner
     ● Our Bamboo Overview
     ● Contact Us
About Bamboo
     ● General Information
     ● Definitions
     ● Running bamboos
     ● Timber bamboo
     ● Privacy Screens
     ● Clumping bamboos
Running Bamboos
     ● Phyllostachys atrovaginata
              (Incense Bamboo)
     ● Phyllostachys aurea
              (Fish Pole or Golden Bamboo)
     ● Phyllostachys aureosulcata
              ‘Spectabilis’
     ● Phyllostachys bambusoides
              (Japanese Timber Bamboo)
     ● Phyllostachys bambusoides
              ‘Castillon’
     ● Phyllostachys dulcis
               (Sweetshoot Bamboo)
     ● Phyllostachys edulis
               (Moso)
     ● Phyllostachys heteroclada
               (Water Bamboo)
     ● Phyllostachys nigra
               (Black Bamboo)
     ● Phyllostachys nigra ‘Bory’
               (Tiger Bamboo)
     ● Phyllostachys nigra ‘Henon’
     ● Phyllostachys vivax
              (Chinese Timber Bamboo)
     ● Qiongzhuea tumidissinoda
              (Chinese Walking Stick Bamboo)
Clumping Bamboos
     ● Fargesia robusta
Services and Projects
     ● Design and consultation
     ● Installations
     ● Bamboo control service
     ● Removals
     ● Stump grinding

     ●
Purchasing|
     ● Payment
     ● Deliveries
     ● Warranty
Bamboo FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
     ● Landscaping with bamboo
     ● Selecting your bamboos
     ● Planting, care, and control of
              your bamboos

Links

Driving directions to Bamboo Valley
              in Albany, Oregon

Bamboo (FAQs) Frequently Asked Questions

Selecting Your Bamboo

Click here for a pdf of the entire FAQ section.

How do I decide what I need from bamboo?

First determine the general height, color, and desired appearance of your bamboo. Look carefully at your light conditions. Bamboo has a wide variety of shapes and sizes and colors to choose from: large leaves and small leaves, large culms and small culms, green, yellow, black, striped, blotched, ridged or smooth culm. Generally the bigger the culm, the taller the bamboo. Whether a bamboo is a spreading type or a clump forming type should not be your first consideration. Clumping bamboos often do not have the characteristics many people want from their bamboo. Clumpers are generally short, slow growing, and weepy.

What type of bamboo do I want for a screen?

First note whether your screen will be in the sun, or the shade, or in both. Think about how tall you want your screen to become. Phyllostachys aurea does very well in the sun. Its mature height is about 20 feet. It is a stiffly upright plant with a habit of making branches and leaves close to the ground. These characteristics give it a great reputation as a screen. Many others work well, too. Generally any mature bamboo divisions will work well in the shade. Make sure, however, that from the start that you get the plants you want as you know that bamboos do not grow fast in the shade as it could takes years for a small start to grow to the size and look you want.

Should I buy my bamboo as ball and burlap or in plastic pots?

Bamboos do best when planted back into the ground as soon as possible after coming out of the ground. The large network of rhizomes and roots that a bamboo has means that when it is divided the first thing it will need to stay alive is water. Traditional ball and burlap technique makes it easy to get both water and air to a bamboo's roots and allows you to dig a root ball that best suits the shape of the particular bamboo's root system, which is sometimes flatter and wider, sometimes deeper and narrower. Ball and burlap is the traditional method of protecting newly divided plants and remains the cheapest and most earth friendly. Plastic pots have many drawbacks: they are expensive, consume lots of space, and do not allow for the penetration of air or water. Plastic is non-renewable and non-biodegradable. Potted bamboos quickly deteriorate, although some will quickly break out of their pots.