Hardiness zones
Sunset 5-24
USDA 7-11
Landscape Use: Accent, informal hedge, edging, ground cover, entryway, foundation plant, oriental to tropical effect in the landscape, mesic and oasis landscape design motifs
Form & Character: Graceful, bamboo like, upright and stiff to small, tufted and dome like, depending on cultivar. This is a plant of much landscape interest.
Growth Habit: Clumps and occasionally spreads from underground rhizomes, rarely branches, height ranges from 18" to 10'
Foliage/texture: Leaves are multiple 2 to 3 times pinnately compound. New foliage is often colored bronze to red. In winter, the cold turns foliage scarlet red, though this rarely occurs not in central Arizona deserts; mostly fine to medium texture
Flowers & fruits: Small white flowers born in terminal clusters followed by terminal clusters of green when immature, then red when mature (fruits can be white in color too!).
Seasonal color: White flowers in mid spring, red fruit in fall and winter, copper-colored new foliage turning to green then turning to red foliage in winter if temperatures consistently fall below 40oF.
Temperature: Hardy to 10oF, will freeze to the ground in cold climates if temperature goes lower but will recover if roots are undamaged by frozen soil. Heavenly bamboo struggles during the summer heat in Phoenix landscapes if exposed to almost any amount of sun. Not surprisingly, it performs better in Tucson as it is generally about 5o to 10oF cooler there during the summer than in Phoenix.
Light: Full shade to partial sun in Phoenix. Avoid west exposure.
Soil: Prone to iron chlorosis and marginal tip burn in alkaline, saline desert soils. Heavenly bamboo is salt sensitive.
Watering: Not drought tolerant in the Phoenix area. Must receive regular and frequent irrigations to looks good.
Pruning: On upright cultivars, selectively remove older 'canes' to 1/4 of length. NEVER SHEAR!!
Propagation: Seed, cutting, division, tissue culture
Disease and pests: None
Additional comments: Heavenly bamboo is an old fashioned serviceable
shrub. It's resurgent popularity in recent years is due
to the proliferation of dwarf cultivars. Heavenly bamboo is a plant with many seasonal accents. All barberry family plants have high
concentrations of berberine, a yellow alkaloid. The presence of berberine renders both root and bark bitter.
The flowers also contain volatile oils and the berries contain malic acid and cyanide.
Popular heavenly bamboo cultivars include:
'Nana'
'Compacta'
'Harbor Dwarf'
'Pygmea'
'Umpqua Chief'
'Alba'
