Description

Family Poaceae
Originating from Yunnan, China.

• A slender, cascading bamboo that is clump-forming, not running or invasive.
• Beautiful powdery white/silver/blue slender culms bear luscious deep green leaves.
• Evergreen, fast-growing, and easy to grow in most soil types.

Outstandingly elegant and graceful, this lush species has slender culms more like Fargesia than other Borindas. They emerge as fat shoots and mature to bear abundant, evergreen, beautifully deep green lustrous leaves, cascading on slender branches. This precious bamboo is rare and much sought after. We have been entrusted with its propagation and hence its availability to gardeners by collectors and former nurserymen. Its unique qualities are matched by its hardiness, having survived the winter of 2009 in an extremely exposed position, at a high elevation near the Welsh border, where ice formed over the ground for several weeks.

Growing from a pachymorph rhizome, it does not run invasively, although it will gradually make a clump up to 3m wide at the base. Its culms do not appear at any distance from the clump. Many of our plants have been taken from mature clumps, as rhizome cuttings, so we have seen firsthand how steady and predictable its spread is, and also how easy it is to manage if required. Its spectacular growth can be enjoyed without fear and the benefits of its shade, shelter, and screening properties can be utilised even in medium-sized gardens. It has formed one of the most eye-catching plants at Urban Jungle Suffolk, where it will grow to form a tunnel-like arch over one of the meandering paths in our exotic woodland garden. Although the base of the clump is compact, its fountain-like weeping habit can arch to form a canopy up to 6 or 8m wide, so it is best given space where its form can be appreciated. The culms frequently arch down to the ground, obscuring the culms, so trimming may be required in order to expose them to allow walking under the canopy. Shortening the side branches, or reducing their height can decrease the weight of foliage they bear, encouraging them to stand more upright and arch over nearer their tips.

The new shoots are covered in thick papery sheaths, with strikingly dull red and purple hues when they first emerge. As the shoot hardens off (they are extremely brittle when young) the sheaths fall, and the white powdery bloom covering the new culm can be enjoyed at its brightest.  During their first season or two, the whiteness mellows to a silver blue, gradually revealing the turquoise/olive green mature culm. The abundance of foliage borne on long side branches causes the slender culms to make foxtail-like plumes of leaves, which are covered in minute hairs and appear to have subtly different shades of green along their length, giving them a unique richness of colour.

Easy to grow in all but thin poor soil or very heavy stiff clay. It will grow happily in an exposed position, experiencing strong and cold winds, however, its foliage maintains its best condition during the winter in an open and sunny, sheltered woodland position. Our clump at Urban Jungle Suffolk is situated in a sheltered position and during the harsh winter of 2022/23 when many plants suffered extreme foliage damage, our clump sailed through without harm. We have also found its hardiness in evidence in an exposed garden near Derby.

Height and spread after 5 – 10 years 6m x 3m.