Dragon's Head Bamboo

Don’t worry, it isn’t fire-breathing, but the Dragon’s Head Bamboo is perhaps the best bamboo for colder climates, and stands green and unbowed, even in heavy snow storms. It also grows happily in more shade than most other bamboos. Growing quickly to around 10 feet tall, and growing broad too, but in a clump, not spreading by underground runners, the strong canes carry abundant leaves right to the ground, and form a rounded mound of foliage when grown as a single specimen. It is also fantastic for hedges, making a tall, dense, evergreen screen within a few years, and it can be trimmed like a hedge, even to the point of being flat-sided and perfectly squared off. This is the ideal bamboo for colder areas, tolerating cold and snow down to minus 15oF with no damage at all. It is great as a screen that provides total privacy, as well as blocking noise and wind. As a terrific variation on evergreen hedges it can’t be beaten, and it makes a great ornamental specimen too, filling corners of your yard, providing background in your beds, or giving that perfect Asian look you crave.

• Vigorous, fast-growing bamboo with dense foliage to the ground
• Fully evergreen, even in cold zones
• More shade-tolerant than most bamboos
• Can be trimmed into a perfectly flat-sided, square hedge
• Best in cool to cold zones, and not tolerant of southern heat and humidity

Grow the Dragon’s Head Bamboo from the warmer parts of zone 5 – it’s super-hardy. Grows well in western zones 8 and 9, but not in the South and Gulf states, as it doesn’t enjoy the intense heat and humidity. Plant in partial sun to full shade, avoiding too much sun, especially in hot zones. It is more shade-tolerant than most other bamboos. Plant in any well-drained soil, giving plenty of water while young, but one established it is reasonably drought tolerant. Deer don’t eat it and pests or diseases are virtually unknown. Trim from late spring to early fall, as needed, but untrimmed plants still retain foliage to the ground.