Kirby Road drapes itself across the hills and valleys of McLean, Virginia, a Washington DC suburb in northern Fairfax County and among the most affluent communities in the country. In the summer, both the trees and the topography shroud the majority of the palatial homes that line either side of this former country lane. In the winter, the topography can only obscure these residences to a limited extent; the trees are bare, and the majesty of the homes of Washington DC’s elite is visible to all. But a few peculiarities emerge, which are probably even more obvious to the uninitiated—those who don’t travel Kirby Road on a regular basis. And here’s one of them:
It’s a stand of lush greenness at a low point in Kirby Road’s elevation, when it slopes down and parallels a small tributary called Little Pimmit Run. Quite a contrast from everything else.
Given that the photos come from early March in northern Virginia, one doesn’t exactly expect such verdure. Sure, it’s not the dead of winter anymore—by this point, many trees are starting to show vestigial buds—but nothing is blooming yet aside from some snowdrops and crocuses, neither of which appear to be all that popular in this part of the country. The first time I drove past this little oasis, I genuinely thought this was some weird microclimate. I’m not sure if this hints at my own climatological ignorance more than the actual conditions, but I genuinely couldn’t figure out what caused this lush growth. Here’s the remaining Kirby Road streetscape:
The small bridge spans the Little Pimmit Run. But there’s no green to be seen. Just that little stand, or grove, or whatever you want to call it, on the side of Kirby Road opposite Little Pimmit Run.
I braved the verge of Kirby Road—twisting, undulating, lots of blind corners—to get closer to these plants to see what they were.
And it soon became obvious: they are a species of bamboo. The columnar stem structure is so distinctive that it impresses itself upon the memory. Technically, bamboo is a grass, but it’s too big and segmented for the botanically untrained eye to make such a distinction; nonetheless, introduce bamboo to a six-year-old and he or she will spot it henceforth. Furthermore, the evergreen character and rhizome cellular formation both ensure that bamboo, when harnessed competently, can serve as an excellent screen and sort of privacy fence. Lastly, it’s among the fastest growing living things in the world; though the transportation of mature plants can be cumbersome, some waist-high starters can grow to towering giants in just three years. The advantages of bamboo are therefore numerous: it’s aesthetic, it’s taller than most shrubs, and, depending on the variety, it can be low maintenance.
From what I can tell, over a dozen bamboo species are available in the United States, though most species are not indigenous. Although most prevalent in southeast Asia and central Africa, at least a few varieties have flourished in North American climates colder than the southeastern US, due to colonial introduction. This guide to the most common species isn’t enough to help me identify exactly what I encountered along Kirby Road, but I can at least deduce among a few of the options in the cited table. It is almost certainly a clumping (non-invasive) species, since these require considerably less maintenance, due to slower and more moderated growth. Running bamboo, by contrast, grows quickly, erratically, and leapfrogs over other flora. It is invasive. Without an abiotic barrier, it is likely to encroach into other turf, including that of the neighbors. Given the absence of planters or some other ceramic impediment, the Kirby Road bamboo is almost certainly one of the eight of so clumping species common to the continent. Equally important are the climatological conditions suitable for bamboo. As indicated earlier, bamboo can survive in the cold but the larger specimens tend to favor warmer climates. Though a few species can grow in the northern portions of the humid continental Köppen climate classification zone, they rarely thrive; no species are indigenous to Canada or mainland Europe. The US Department of Agriculture provides cartographic Plant Hardiness Zones that correlate to various regions, based largely on plants’ survivability in accordance with that region’s typical minimum temperatures. By the country’s overall standards, northern Virginia is hardly a place that one associates with frigid weather, but it gets cold enough that its USDA Plant Hardiness Zone is 7b, anticipating a winter temperature that bottoms out at 5-10º Fahrenheit (-15 to -12.2º Celsius). This zone accommodates some bamboo varieties, but quite a few are likely to perish at sustained temperatures below 20º F, a condition that usually happens every two to three winters in Fairfax County and McLean. The most common specie in North America, giant timber bamboo or Oldham’s bamboo (Bambusa oldhamii) thrives within the USDA zones of 8 to 11. Caveat emptor to the homeowners seeking it for a privacy screen; a cold snap could destroy it.
That said, it’s quite possible that giant timber bamboo is what I discovered there on Kirby Road. Though far from ideal, this specie is more appropriate than any of the others: the most cold-tolerant varieties are far too short, while oldhamii grows to the levels visible in these photos (from 40 to 65 feet). Additionally, the only varieties with the right combination of height and heartiness tend to be running rather than clumping. The only other reasonable possibilities for Kirby Road are seabreeze bamboo (Bambusa maligensis) or Buddha’s belly bamboo (Bambusa ventricosa), both of which are similarly cold tolerant…potentially better. However, seabreeze does not grow nearly as tall (it maxes out at 35’) and Buddha’s belly is rare in the US outside of Florida, California, and Hawaii; significant frost is lethal.
The homeowners here in McLean obviously did their research. Without giving away too many details, they’ve planted it along both roads that abut their property. It doesn’t grow to quite the same heights on the side street, but the right side of this road makes it obvious how effective it can be, even compared to the verdant winter quality of shrubs on the left side of the road.
I’ve deliberately avoided any angles that allowed me to peer through gaps in the green bamboo screen; normally I have no problem taking photos of homes from public rights-of-way, but these folks have clearly made every effort to obscure their home and yard, even in the dead of winter. I can respect this.
So the bigger question remains: why did these homeowners choose bamboo, and why is it so uncommon in northern Virginia that this example will turn heads? (Or at least, why did it turn my head?) Easy: it’s rare because the up-front costs can be considerable. Few nurseries carry bamboo, thereby amplifying shipping costs. Additionally, deer and rabbits find young, tender bamboo quite tasty, and these critters, highly adaptable to habitat fragmentation in suburban areas, are obviously abundant in Fairfax County. Lastly, this part of Virginia is just a bit north for the most popular bamboos to survive (the really tall ones); unless a homeowner is willing to compromise with a specie that only grows up to 15’, he or she will have to settle for giant timber, seabreeze, or Buddha’s belly (maybe one or two others), nearly all of which can get wiped out through an unusually harsh winter. Giant timber bamboo can easily sell for $250 a plant when purchased in bulk (20 or more); this property on Kirby Road had hundreds, resulting in what I’d estimate carried a minimum $50,000 price tag. This is a hefty price for those six extra months of a green screen. But this is McLean. With median household incomes well over $200,000, most folks can afford bamboo. And when they get those serious cold spells twice a decade, just bring in the new stock.
15 thoughts on “A green screen on Kirby Road—good for all seasons, even when everything else is brown.”
Anyone who plants bamboo anywhere that is not in a. self contained pot (and event then, just NO), should be fined a million dollars! Many places have ordinances against it as it is considered an invasive species. As you probably know, it can spread many feet a year and will keep spreading until it hits a physical barrier. In the mid atlantic, the weather is never harsh enough to kill most species of bamboo. I have even seen a lot of bamboo as far north as on Cape Cod. How do I know all of this? It is the bane of my existence as the property behind me is ALL bamboo and I have been battling it for 25 years. We are in a state of detente since I put a root barrier in about 20 years ago, but right up at the barrier, this time of year it can grow 12″ a day if it has been wet and warm. Even though I have mostly stopped the rhizomes from coming into my yard (I had nightmares of it cracking my foundation my first year in the house!) it still causes me a tremendous amount of work maintaining the crap that breaks from snow and rain load and falls on my side. If this all sounds like I am a complaining fussy neighbor, I assure you I am the most easy going neighbor anyone can have, but it is mildly irritating that someone else’s choice causes me a lot of work. There are certainly much less invasive and just as fast growing screening plants (Leyland Cyprus for example). The interesting thing about bamboo is it is technically a grass and as such a grove is essentially all one plant. So the only way to truly eliminate it is to dig up the top 18″ of top soil and remove the roots or grind them up. In the past, I have “severed” parts of the grove in my side yard and when that part was isolated, kept mowing it for 2 years and eventually all of the energy in the roots depletes without the ability to photosynthesize and will die. It’s a long, slow process but it has to be cut off from the rest of the plant or else, it will just keep coming every year. This is why using chemicals on parts of the plant are ineffective (and round up is evil anyway), So, I have no respect for anyone that plants it because of the consequences. It’s just ignorant and shows people have not done their homework. Happy to send you a picture!
Roundup qualified as the lesser evil when I was fighting a similar “neighborly” bamboo invasion at my first house (40-ish years ago).
Of course in those days the herbicide was still considered something of a miracle chemical…Boomers of my acquaintance jokingly referred to it as “Agent Orange”, though. (Again, before the delayed popular understanding of the horrors of Agent Orange.)
I have vague memories of the Roundup logo from old commercials when I was a kid. I guess the Monsanto-produced herbicide has been dogged by thousands of lawsuits over the years, but it still seems like it’s hanging in there. Probably a lesser evil as you mention, though its carcinogenic properties seem increasingly difficult to refute.
I’m getting a hunch that you won’t be running for an exec board position at the American Federation of Bamboo Cultivators any time soon…
My initial hunches of why bamboo is so rare in residential landscaping largely echoed what you just told me. I figured it is basically impossible to manage. I suppose there’s a chance that one of the websites linked in my article is “misinformation” created by the ever-powerful bamboo lobby, deliberately steering people toward buying it for their yards by promoting its appealing qualities (hearty, wind resistant, green all year) while downplaying its invasiveness. But it really does appear that there’s a difference between creeping and running varieties of bamboo. You seem to be engaged in a long-term stand-down with running bamboo, which absolutely is a pest species. But creeping bamboo remains well-contained and is always the type that bamboo landscaping companies advise. They strongly discourage running bamboo varieties, and those are probably the source of municipal anti-bamboo ordinances that exist. If the ordinances are smartly crafted enough to distinguish. And that’s a big if. Is the neighboring property generally wilderness, or is it a private lawn owned by someone who likes bamboo and doesn’t care about its long-term tendencies? Obviously you don’t need to answer that if it reveals details of private residences.
I tell you what: I’ll continue driving by this Kirby Road bamboo installation through the late spring. I’ll monitor it and see if it seems to grow. Based on bamboo’s potential for growth, I should notice based on my twice-a-week visits. My suspicion is this is a homeowner who knows what he/she is doing. It doesn’t appear to have changed much in the last two months that I’ve passed by it, and while the property is fairly large (maybe a little under an acre), that’s not big enough that it wouldn’t cause the neighbors consternation if it’s a running type of bamboo that grows out of control. I’ll let you know how it looks as we get toward the wettest time of the year around these parts.
The neighboring property at my back border is essentially the way back yard of my behind neighbor. The property has changed hands 3-4 times (depending on how you count as the lot was subdivided and had redevelopment) over the 25 years I’ve lived here. Every time there is a new owner, I propose removing it (basically bring in a grader and grind up to top 2′ of soil), and I would contribute to the cost because it obviously saves me time and money in the long run. The last two owners have not been interested in my offer as it is not “in their face”. I make no bones about the fact that it is “in my face” and mildly annoying to me that their choices cost me effort and money. I had a root fence installed 15 years ago at a cost of $2k, basically a thick plastic barrier that goes down 24″ and (mostly) prevents the rhizomes from entering my yard and this does really help. That said, the bamboo was there when I bought my house, so can’t say I didn’t know… In general, I am about the most easy going neighbor one could have, so don’t get the idea that I am “that guy next door”. FYI, here’s a street view link (I don’t care, all my info is hugely public) – https://goo.gl/maps/pjR1operUSHUBGyy7 – Look down my driveway and it’s all along the back of the property line. Note the open area with a few new trees planted to the left of the driveway. This image is basically 10 years old and when I moved in in 1997, the ENTIRE AREA was thick bamboo. Since it was under the power lines, the power company “clear cut” it one year (when I was out of town and when I got back, it was WOWZA cool!). I did a lot of work to keep it mowed and isolated from the rest of the grove and it eventually killed the roots and I was able to return it to normal and I planted the native oaks. This is actually all city property, but it is in my best interest to take care of it.
Sorry you’re faced with these challenges, Alex. Sounds like running bamboo is no less invasive or ruthless than kudzu. Someone else here mentioned Bradford pears, which, though they don’t spread like yours, are a tree that shows a staggering ability to lop itself off after 25 years (it gets too top heavy) but the root system is so ruthless that, without a massive excavation, it will grow back in time.
If you were a less agreeable person, you could probably go after the City for this…
Great, but incredibly invasive (shoots spread underground) and can squeeze out native plants, upending habitat. Can be contained in steel containers (cow feeders), but will punch through plastic.
Definitely the criticism most people are offering! I’ll confess that the differences between clumping and running bamboo might be overstated by sites that are tying to build more appreciation for bamboo. But a there’s scientific basis between the running (leptomorph) and the clumping (pachymorph) species of bamboo. And the running bamboo are the culprits that give bamboo such a bad, invasive rep. Clumping is often less hardy (more susceptible to getting zapped in a cold snap) but the rhizomes to clumping bamboo don’t create these underground pneumatic tubes and actually tend to stay put. You probably know more about this than I do, but here’s an illustration. https://lewisbamboo.com/pages/clumping-vs-running-bamboo/ I’m still trying to determine if the bamboo posted in my photos is clumping or running. I’ll continue to pass by it for several more weeks, and if it seems to expand further…it’s probably running, which means the homeowners have to contend with all the problems you just described!
Invasive species
Yeah, bamboo does have that tendency. Most bamboo species come from Asia or Africa. But some bamboos are native to the southern US and Central America. And the clumping (as opposed to running) bamboos can be contained pretty easily. But not everyone is careful enough to get clumping bamboo, and then they face HUGE problems. So do their neighbors.
reminds me of Bradford Pears or whatever they cross bred with. They are taking over Interstate right of ways and mediums. While I’ve got you remembering some of my readings of early settlements in KY. What were and what happened to Cane Breaks. Worked for LGE for 38 years and one the power plants was on Cane run road. I have always identified runs as small streams that “ran” out after significant rain fall but for the most remains dry. However New Albany renamed them as creeks.Slate Run Creek and so on. Be glad to hear your opinion. Wendy and I have run rivers from West Virginia to Idaho and Texas from whitewater to placid streams. Drew up on a creek in the 1950s main source of entertainment in those days
I’d rate Bradford pears as definitely more of a nuisance even than bamboo. They became fashionable 40 years ago because of their pretty blossoms every April, but otherwise, they’re pretty terrible plants. The trunk structure makes them top-heavy once they mature, and they usually snap with a heavy windstorm after just about 20 years. And even though they lose any visual appeal, their route structure is so resilient that if even a slight trace amount remains in the ground, they grow back and keep other trees from thriving. And the Bradford pear blossoms smell terrible! And they’re definitely invasive.
Your description of a “run” makes sense to me. But I’m not familiar with the term “cane breaks”.. My biggest memories of any creek is the one that the back of my grandparents property abutted over there on Creekview Circle. When I was little, it was forest on the other side of their property, opposite the creek. As I grew up, that forest got developed, and that was my first introduction to how impervious surface can cause widespread flooding. With an office park where the forest used to be, that little creek in their black backyard flooded fairly often. Thanks for sharing your memories!
did a little research they were called canebreaks lined the Ohio River and lower wet areas, an indication of rich soil where they had lived and died for ions of time
Don’t you just love it when you write a thoughtful well-researched article full of nuance and analysis, and all anyone else contributes is knee-jerk responses that completely ignore your whole treatise in favor of a simple black and white dichotomy?
This truly is the first time this has ever happened in all my 12 years of writing this blog. Up until this point, absolutely everyone read beyond the title and captioned first photograph. It’s so weird.
Probably one of the biggest reasons I avoid clickbait titles.
In fairness, I can understand why people who have had to deal with other neighbors’ irresponsible planting of bamboo might feel fairly passionate about the subject. And I’m not entirely convinced that the less invasive types of bamboo (the clumping ones) are good at turning into a year-round green screen, nor are they as customarily “pretty”. But they might still serve as a good alternative to the running types that spread so fast.