Oaks and Container Bamboo
Sometimes we see several plants sharing a container in the garden, but there are few plants that are successful companions with bamboo. Oak is one rather incongruous example.
Growing Bamboo in containers produces portable garden elements that are beautiful, and work well as mother plants for propagation. It is good practice to transplant them every few years, ensuring that there is plenty of soil around the roots. After a few years, the bamboo will tend to expand and fill the volume of the pot with roots. I usually divide the plant when transplanting, sometimes into three new plants.
Sometimes, I've left a bamboo growing in a container for way too long (maybe 5-7 years), just adding soil and maybe some fertilizer now and then. It's eventually bad for the bamboo so I don't recommend the practice. However, I've learned a bit about keeping them going, a bit about how this little plant colony develops. In these cases, there may be quite a few species growing in the container, as I like to see each large container as a small landscape of it's own, in the garden.
I've observed that scrub Oak is one of the few trees that can survive, thrive, and compete with bamboo in a container. There is a 20 year old Bambusa multiplex 'Riviereorum' in my courtyard with a 6' oak. I cut the oak back aggressively now and then, but it just continues to expand.
Across and around the courtyard are two more Oaks of similar size invading the bamboo containers of other species. I chop down the privet trees that get started in the continers, and pull the Ivy that somehow sneaks in. The Oaks are quite amazing, and I don't like to pull out a tree with such character, I'd like to plant it. One of the Oaks growing from a bamboo container has a trunk over 1" in diameter even though it is only about 4'tall. Makes an interesting and rather large bonsai. The bamboo is so delicate next to the prickly deep green Oak leaves.
Nasturtiums grow well with bamboo, and with their ability to fix nitrogen, make a good companion plant for the giant grass. Indeed their color is a welcome complement, and they can be used in the kitchen as well. I plant Nasturtiums with bamboo in containers, and in pots mixed with the bamboo planters around the living area.
In the timber bamboo grove, I've planted grapes around the edges, and trained the vines to climb the bamboo. We also planted honeysuckle vines. Both are vulnerable to the culm at the base having problems but they grow up in the top canopy (to get sun) and form a wonderful layer some 20-40 feet up. In the past, I've also had climbing roses growing up in the bamboo and oak canopy, but haven't yet established that system here in my garden. The honeysuckle flowers up in the canopy of the bamboo grove are appreciated by the birds, and by us when we're in the hammock.
