Bamboo plants are part of the perennial evergreen grass family. They add an oriental touch to your garden. Their hollow culms and evergreen foliage add a beautiful touch to the garden all year round. This makes it the best bamboo screen for garden and pots.
The amazing bamboos come in two main forms: clump-forming and running. Some of the plants thrive in the UK climate. Here are the common features of the best bamboo screen to grow in a temperate climate. They are great for privacy screening, hedging, growing in pots and containers, or adding a unique focal point to your garden.
Medium-Large Bamboo plants for privacy screen
Bamboos’ dense evergreen foliage provides the best natural privacy screens and fences for homes and gardens in the UK. It is important to pick the right bamboo for privacy screen fencing and enjoy them all year round.
The medium to large bamboo is best for screening or partitioning sections of gardens. Here are two varieties of Bambusa bamboos that are better suited for privacy screens.
- Seabreeze bamboo: The Seabreeze Bamboo (Bambusa Malingensis) is medium-large sized and is the popular bamboo for privacy fences and screens. Seabreeze bamboos are effective screens because they have lots of secondary branches which make the best Bamboo plants for privacy screening.
- Slender-clump bamboo: Also called Bambusa Textilis Gracilis, it is the best bamboo plant for hedges and privacy screening. This bamboo is popular fence screening bamboo or hedging bamboo plants.
Although the Seabreeze and Slender-clump bamboos are popular, there are other varieties that grow well in the UK such as the Phyllostachys Aureocaulis and Phyllostachys nigra.
YouGarden UK has a great collection of medium to large bamboos. Check out the Running and Clumping bamboos for sale in the UK.
Best Bamboo for Borders, Hedges and Driveways
Growing bamboo along borders and hedges and driveways is a delicate undertaking, especially controlling your bamboo roots, shoots and leaves from entering the neighbour’s garden.
- Seabreeze and Slender-clump bamboos (mentioned above) are also great hedges and border plants. In addition, the Umbrella bamboos are also great hedges and border plants. They provide the green dense cover and are less maintenance-intensive bamboos.
- Green Jumbo Umbrella Bamboo: Known as Fargesia Murielae grows to a max height of 4 metres with a max width of 2.5 metres. The Green Jumbo bamboo is an extremely dense plant, perfect for border hedging and screening.
Although most border, hedges and driveways bamboo plants need less maintenance, you still need to check them regularly.
A regular check all year round is the most effective way to stop the bamboo rhizomes from invading other people’s properties. In addition, a regular check is important for pruning the old bamboo and maintaining the hedges so that they stay neat and adorable.
Common bamboo plants for pots and containers
Clump-forming bamboo plants grow slowly and do not spread quickly like running bamboo. Clumping bamboo rhizomes expand around the root area forming a clump. The mini clump-forming bamboos are suitable for growing in pots and containers.
Mini clump-forming bamboos
If you want the ideal bamboo plants for pots and containers, choose the clump-forming bamboo varieties. To help you, here are the two common clump-forming bamboos.
- Umbrella bamboo Simba: The Fargesia murielae Simba is a tough and small bamboo plant you can find. ‘Simba’ is an ornamental clump-forming bamboo that is best for smaller gardens, pots and containers.
- Winter Joy: The Fargesia murielae ‘Winter Joy’ is a hybrid bamboo, cross between ‘Simba’ and ‘Dwarf Fountain’ Umbrella Bamboos. It has a distinct dark green culm (stem) with red overlays. Winter joy is hardy, evergreen and non-invasive. Best for growing in the garden, or in pots and containers.
(Read about the 10 Common Types of Running and Clumping Bamboo Plants).
Best Bamboo Screen for Garden
Some varieties of Clump-forming bamboo plants are ideal for creating a beautiful centrepiece in your garden, the rhizomes (roots) grow in compact non-invasive clusters around the parent plant.
There are as many as 10,000 varieties of these bamboo plants, and about five varieties make for great centrepieces in many UK gardens. According to our research, Black Bamboo and Spectablilis Bamboo are the 2 popular garden bamboo plants grown in the UK.
- Black Bamboo: The black stemmed Phyllostachys nigra is a much sought-after feature of bamboo plants in many UK gardens. This bamboo is a beauty.
- Spectabilis Bamboo: Phyllostachys Aureocaulis Spectabilis is an attractive tall plant. Its spectacular yellow stripe against the green bamboo cane makes it stands out anywhere in the garden. It is an absolute show-stopper. It is ideal for a privacy screen as is tall and strong.
If you are growing running bamboo in the garden, it will require attention so that it does not invade other spaces.
Top tip: To avoid a lump of clump roots forming around the soil or rhizomes spreading, grow the featured bamboos in big garden pots or containers before placing them on the patio or in the garden.
Popular Types of Bamboos Grown in the UK
Now that we have identified the 4 best bamboo screen to grow to provide a privacy screen and as a border fence. Here is a summary table for the average (Av.) height and diameter of the bamboo at the ideal growing condition in the UK.
Variety and Common Name | Suitability |
Small gardens, pots and containers | |
Gardens, pots and containers | |
Garden, driveway and privacy screen | |
Garden, driveway and privacy screen | |
Privacy screen, hedge, garden feature, pots and containers | |
Privacy screen, hedge, garden feature, pots and containers | |
Ideal for a walkthrough, large garden, or woodland forest |
NOTE: We identified these bamboo plants to be either the best or most popular using the online (real-time) data provided by Google Trends for the UK. It may not be reflective of a global audience.
Bamboo plants thriving in the UK
There are some bamboo plants that have been growing in popularity in the UK for the last 10 years. Online data has shown that in the last 5 years to the present, there is a high demand for these plants.
Many homeowners and gardeners realised that bamboo plants are best for border fences, henge and privacy screens. Additionally, bamboo plants are also popular due to their multiple uses in gardens.
The best bamboo screens we covered in this article are ideal for the UK climate and can thrive throughout the cold winter months.
Check out this article on Bamboo Plants that Thrive in UK Gardens, it is an insightful take on how to identify and grow new bamboo plants.
We hope this article inspires you to grow your own Bamboo plant in the garden and enjoy the beauty of this amazing plant.
If you have any questions, comments, corrections or requests feel free to reach out to us via our social media pages or comment below. We would be delighted to hear from you.