I've never grown it!

I am an inveterate gardener, but have never had a bamboo plant in any of the gardens that I have tended in my travels - living in various states of Australia and overseas, though I do recall at one stage pulling out a rampant bamboo plant in one of the houses.  Somewhere.  I can't recall where exactly, but at that time I probably had little information about it - regarded it as a terrible weed (it is a grass, after all!), and that was that.

However, on reflection, I do know that I have run my fingers over bamboo poles and sensed the smooth and comfortable feel of the pole.  I did not know that bamboo would eventually become a passion though.  It sort of grew on me.  The passion I mean.

I do have one lonely plant - the nursery said that she hoped I had a big garden.  Well, I don't, and I am not sure where it will find a home, but for the moment is happy in a 9 inch plastic pot.

I have grown in the past, what is called a 'lucky bamboo' but I am advised that it really isn't a bamboo - but the name was devised by a clever marketing person.

Saving the environment has been of interest to me - though I have not participated in any movement, but have quietly and deliberately tried to use environmentally friendly products, I recycle many things, and I shun polluting activities.

However, I have lived in one of the most polluted countries.  China.  It was rare to see the sun, the skies would be filled with dirty smokey 'stuff' or as many Chinese would try to convince me - 'fog'.

I wonder how bad the country would be if it were not for the prolific growth of bamboo which helps to oxygenate the air, and absorbs carbon dioxide.

It was in China, that I saw bamboo growing - as I said earlier I was 'surrounded' by it.  The accommodation for foreign teachers was in a corner of the campus, with a 'river' or canal on two sides, and bamboo grew prolifically in this part of the campus.  In part to prevent us from falling into the polluted canal, and to hide the factories across the canal.

It was here that I learned about the rapid growth of bamboo, and on my travels around the country learned so much about it.