Planting palms around Bambusa Oldhamii

[Scott]

Hi,

I'm planting 3 'islands' in my yard, with the oldhamii in two of them. I wanted to make a tight cluster of plants in each - alowing room for growth of course. With the clumping habits of oldhamii, can or will it overtake the other plants? How close can other plants, palms etc. be safely planted?

Thanks for any input,

Scott

Oh yeah, I went and got that giant bird of paradise.

[Cycadcenter]

Scott,

I wouldn't plant anything within 20-30 feet of oldhamii, our neighbor planted some about 15 ft from the fence 10 years ago and it will reach the fence this year and we cut one stalk and it was 62 feet high.  

WE have planted a couple of hundred on our place at Childers with the hope of forming a windbreak.

I would be very carefull planting it unless you have at least an acre or so as it gets VERY BIG

[JakeK]

Granted I live in the arctic compared to most others on this board, but I have never heard of a clumper expanding that fast. I have seen 30 and 40 year old clumps of Oldhamii approaching 25ft in diameter, but most 10 year old clumps I have seen are still less than 10 feet in diameter. Not saying your wrong Cycad, I just have never seen Oldhamii "run like that".

Scott, if you want to plant palms near your bamboo there are some tighter clumping species that would work better like many of the Dendrocalamus species and even Bambusa textilis is tighter clumping than Oldhamii.

Scott ask Roy in the Bamboo forum. He has lots of experience with tropical clumpers and is one of our resident experts over there.

Jake

[Scott]

Jake, I'll check with Roy. Thanks. I'm also looking at some of the suggestions you sent me.

I like the Oldhamii for the clumping, height and quick growth. But I'm sure there's probably on that fits better.

In Marina Del Rey, there's a restaurant called the Warehouse. You should see their Bamboo! Plus all the palms, bananas, etc. Just gorgeous! I thought they might have had the oldhamii - but they have tons of water front property too.

[chris78]

Hi Scott

I have B. oldhamii planted in my jungle garden which is about 1/2 acre.... plus other bamboos as well. The main problem with growing plants around bamboo are bamboo greedy roots that take alot of moisture and nutrition out of the soil. I find B. oldhamii to be a fast drinker and feeder that leaves little for other plants around it..

Also it shade and leaf drop can also be a problem with plants near them. Most plant near bamboo grow slowly....With all this being said... I do grow some plants around my bamboo. I plant shade loving plants that tolerate dry, poor soil..

As for palms, Arenga engleri, and Sabal sps do ok....because they tolerate shade and dry poor soil..... also some Chamaedorea species do will near bamboo, but grow slowly.

[Scott]

Thanks for the replies!

I've decided to give the oldhamii it's own area completely. From what I've been reading, it seems like you can cut the culms just below ground level to keep the footprint of the clump as you might like it.

Have any of you found this to be so?