Growing Bamboo for ProfitBecause bamboo is one of the most widely-used landscaping plants, there is a steady demand for popular varieties. One of the best ways to get in on the bamboo boom is with container-grown bamboo plants. Why container-grown? By growing bamboo in containers - typically 2 to 5 gallon pots - you'll be able to grow more healthy plants in a smaller space, cut down on labor, and have a plant that is ready to load in a customer's car quickly and easily. Growing bamboo for profit is an ideal part-time business if you have limited time, as bamboo plants, especially in containers, are low-maintenance. Unlike seasonal crops such as flowers and vegetables, you get paid even if all your plants don't sell this year. Instead, they just keep growing, and will be more valuable next year. You can start a bamboo growing business with just a small amount of money - just enough to buy your "mother" plants that can be divided to produce more plants to sell. What You'll Learn: Each chapter covers all the basic information you need to get started growing these profitable bamboo varieties, including: Best dwarf, midsize and timber bamboos to grow - 33 in all, with descriptions and photos. How to start and set up your bamboo nursery - water, spacing, potting soils, containers and more. How to grow and propagate bamboo. Eight ways to market your bamboo. Wholesale sources for hundreds of bamboo varieties & grower supplies. Grower forums, organizations and videos.

Practical Bamboos features the 50 best bamboos based on appearance and usefulness. A handy checklist allows readers to pick plants that are right for them at a glance. A section on using bamboo in the garden covers topics such as incorporating bamboos in the mixed border, using them to create Japanese-style or Mediterranean-style gardens, using them for hedges and edging, establishing them in containers, choosing the right ones for difficult places, and selecting the best plants for small gardens or waterside planting.

"Farming Bamboo" tells farmers and gardeners in the Pacific Northwest what they need to know to raise bamboo as a farm crop. The bamboo is farmed in order to sell bamboo shoots for food and poles for wood. The botany of bamboo is described for a background to making decisions about caring for the bamboo. An encyclopedia describes 27 species of the genus Phyllostachys.

Crossing a number of genera, the wide variety of species and cultivars provide the garden with brightly coloured glossy stems, lush foliage, rustling movement and very fast growth. The Gardener's Guide to Growing Temperate Bamboos offers both a valuable guide to gardeners keen to establish the best performers for different situations and for specialists interested in the detail behind the plant. For the gardener there are a wide range of uses in the mixed border or container, and as specimen plantings, ground cover or water features. If you choose your species carefully there need be no danger from running roots or excess size and bamboos can be used as hedges for front gardens, screens for patios and in small courtyard gardens. Specialists will find fascinating information about the history of bamboos, the botanical sophistication of the plant's design, and tips for finding and growing the more unusual species

"'Each year during the shoot season, we stand spellbound in our beautiful botanical garden, gazing in awe at the newly emerging shoots of tropical giant bamboos. They thrust the earth aside in great clods as they heave their mighty bulk from beneath the earth.'" The object of this book is to communicate a wealth of knowledge, both scientific and practical, to those with little knowledge of the fabulous clumping bamboos of the world. Few people seem to be aware of the existence of these clumping bamboos. Their experience and attitudes have been soured by the invasive running bamboos. The Western world is not yet taking clumping bamboos seriously. Most Asian countries treat this fastest growing, annually renewable resource with great reverence. Bamboo feeds them, houses them, graces and shades their environment. It is used to make their musical instruments, cooking and eating utensils, furniture, hunting weapons, and ceremonial artifacts. It even provides the reinforcement for their concrete. Bamboo provides their carrying and storage baskets, lamps and lampshades, ropes and strings, roof tiles and hats, and has hundreds of other practical and spiritual uses. "Bamboo World" distils simple practical advice on using bamboo for a wealth of applications. It draws on both traditional village technology and modern scientific research, accumulated over the author's many years of travel, practice, research, growing, and association with village communities and scientists from many countries.

Whatever your climate, there is a suitable species of bamboo for your garden. More than 300 bamboos are described, from tropical and subtropical species to hardy species with information on size, native range, and landscape use.

Includes over three hundred color photos, covers thirty-five genera of bamboos in cultivation, and describes more than three hundred species and cultivars, with each entry including the plant's maximum height, maximum diameter, light requirements, and minimum temperature tolerated. Original.