Weird uses for Bamboo

Bamboo bicycle 1896, Wikipedia

Bamboo is one of the most versatile plants around.
Many cultures around the world rely on bamboo for building houses, making musical instruments, carrying water and making screens and furniture. Bamboo can be made into paper and the fibre is being used for fabric these days.
One of the weirdest things I have heard about bamboo being used for, is the bamboo bicycle! Believe it or not the first bamboo bicycle was built  in 1894. The frame is bamboo and the wheels are 'normal' .

The idea was revived by scientists and engineers at The Earth Institute, Columbia University, in an aid project to introduce bamboo bikes as a sustainable form of transportation in Africa. Fantastic if you can GROW YOUR OWN! 

These days bamboo bikes have become an upmarket item in western cultures. The bamboo is combined with carbon fibre for lightness, strength and smooth ride.Some producers in Asia, Africa and US take orders for custom built ones! The main features of bamboo bicycle designs are vibration damping, crash tolerance and the natural look of the bike. These bikes offer a smooth and comfortable ride combined with the most desirable feature of such bikes - vibration absorption!  As a consequence, bamboo has been made into road and racing bicycles, and mountain bikes.

Check out this retro looking number! I love the bamboo basket...

Golden Goddess Bamboo

The  world of Bamboo is really wide and rich. There are so many varieties(around 1500) to look at and be amazed by the different sizes, leaf shapes  and even the shape of the stems. Bamboo is a really unique plant because it will grow and perform however you want it to be. If you have an ugly fence or nosey neighbours, your bamboo plant will act as a screen and will perfectly hide your fence and maintain your privacy. All this behind its glorious foliage. There are so many varieties to suit different garden styles and sizes, and one of the worlds' favourites for screening and hedging is 'Golden Goddess'. It is one of the cultivars of the big family of Bambusa multiplex, native to Southern China. Golden Goddess will perfectly fit into a small as well as a large garden. It is a dwarf variety which will grow up to 3m and will form a rounded bun shape. If grown in a full sun its culms (stems) will turn yellow-gold with age. Golden Goddess has bigger leaves compared to the other members of the B.multiplex family. It perfectly tolerates frosts and temperatures below -12C, which makes it suitable for Adelaide Hills gardens.
So, imagine sitting under your pergola on a sunny day, watching the golden stems playing in the light  and hearing the leaves whispering an old story brought by the wind from the country of the rising sun! Poetic huh! And the best thing is that it grows really quickly (if you treat it right), so this poetry could be true in a year or two in your garden!

Bambusa multiplex cv. Golden Goddess

Bamboo Shoots

One of the large bamboos that you can grow in Adelaide is also grown to produce edible bamboo shoots!
Bambusa oldhamii provides tender, tasty shoots, as well as being a beautiful, erect, tall clump to 6m in our conditions. The culms are shiny dark green  with dark green leaves, and B. oldhamii can cope with heavy frost down to -9 C, so it's fine for the Adelaide Hills or inland areas. The shoot is cut with a spade or heavy knife at the base, then split lengthwise so the outer skin can be peeled off easily. The it is sliced thinly to be added to your next stirfry. It has wonderful crunchy texture and very mild flavour, so it can be combined with any seafood, meat or vegetables.

GINGER GARLIC SHOOTS

Stirfry together finely sliced bamboo shoots, garlic and ginger for 2 min, then add 1 glass of white wine or vegetable stock and cook for another 3-5 min. Season to taste with chilli, salt and pepper.

Zoo Bamboo

Had a look at the bamboo plantings at Adelaide Zoo recently...and they are looking beautiful. A lot of running species (Phyllostachys) because that is cold climate traditional panda food...you don't have a thick coat like that for no reason! Wang Wang the male panda is quite active,eating his 'bamboo cake' with gusto (the Zoo mixes up a  'cake' made from bamboo leaves and extra nutritional supplements which the animals seem to love) and wandering around his beautifully landscaped enclosure. They have cordoned off the huge Moreton Bay Fig which overhangs the panda pad, because Funi developed a liking for the figs dropping off the tree, and guess what -got diarrhoea! Then she introduced Wang Wang to the figs and hey-a running disaster! Anyway, a temporary fence has been set up, and Funi has retired to her enclosure with a phantom pregnancy. Apparently this is not uncommon. So, even though they didn't get it together when she was on heat last spring, she's practising! Meanwhile back to the bamboo.

They have planted a lovely ground cover bamboo called Sasa in the enclosure,,,it's from Japan and thrives in part shade, creating a thick leafy mat, about ankle height. It is a runner so you need to contain it, but it's great in the right situation. Check it out next time you're at the Zoo.

Effects of Climate

Bamboo is really responsive to the food and drink it gets....give it what it likes and away she grows! This was made even more apparent when a bamboo expert visited this week. Looking at the fact that Adelaide has about 6 months of growing season and Southern Queensland has about 9 months, our growth rates and size is about 2/3 of what they can get! It kind of makes sense really... They still struggle with Timor Black in the winter though...

IT'S A GROWING CONCERN!

It's the clumping bamboo growth season and WOW there are new spikes everywhere. Most pots have at least 2 new shoots emerging and if your bamboo is planted in the ground, it's going gangbusters! I love this Alphonse Karr with the new pink shoots...very feminine!

Welcome to Bamboo Heaven in Adelaide

I love bamboo! It is one of the most versatile, fastest growing plants on the planet, and with more than a thousand different species, there is one for every situation. 
Since buying Fern Forest Nursery last year I have been converted to the wonders and joys of bamboo. We stock many varieties suitable for Adelaide conditions, and there are lots of mature plants in the garden to prove how wonderful bamboo really is. The photo features China Gold bamboo growing in our carpark garden, and it is a fantastic decorative plant excellent as a feature or screen in suburban backyards. It has bright yellow canes (culms), with a green stripe, and thick green leaves which sometimes sport a stripe of their own. It is quite robust, will grow in full sun or part shade, and it's gorgeous yellow canes look fantastic in front of the cream coloured fence panels. China Gold bamboo grows to about 3 metres in Adelaide conditions and will reach full height in about 18 months, and mature size in about 3 years given the right conditions. It is truly beautiful!