VAL BOURNE has an uneasy relationship with the X-factor plant

I have been blessed with the three most important essentials for a gardener. Firstly, a spirit of adventure, secondly, stamina and last, a ruthless streak that allows me to banish plants that fail to come up to scratch.

The trouble is, my well-known spirit of adventure seems to fail me when it comes to planting bamboos. Deep in my distant past, a memory of digging (or trying to dig out) a ferociously spreading monster on a sloping site, on clay soil, still lingers on.

If I didn't have the stamina 30 years ago, I'm hardly likely to manage it now, and so I hesitate, procrastinate and then fail to make a decision.

Like many, I'm frightened that an 8ft grove will surround my cottage in ten minutes flat. Indeed, most of the bamboos introduced into Britain in the late 19th century, from lowland China, should come with a free machete and compass - though I will concede that an invasive bamboo is useful sometimes as a wind break, or to prevent soil erosion on a bank.

Why plant a bamboo in your garden at all, then? Well, in the last 20 years or so, several less-invasive, high-altitude introductions have arrived in Britain. Some have colourful canes that look very spectacular in winter sun. Often, these are phyllostachys, natives of eastern Asia and China.

The most spectacular to many is actually an older introduction, Phyllostachys nigra - the only black-caned bamboo. Each cane matures to black and the effect is accentuated by narrow white rings and pale bud scales that appear at regular intervals.

Other new introductions have fine foliage set on very slender canes. The finely dissected leaves flicker in winter light as effectively as a magic lantern in a darkened sitting room. Planted close to water, these fine-foliage bamboos cast a kaleidoscope pattern of light and shade and rustle gently, almost whispering.

The fargesias, from the upland areas of Western Central China, are topped by a mass of fine foliage that usually fountains out at the top.

Predicting the spread of any bamboo can be tricky, for the rate is strongly influenced by regional climate. The same bamboo grown on the warm, damp western side of England or Scotland is likely to be ten times the size of one pegged back by dry, cold conditions in East Anglia or Aberdeenshire.

So whenever you plant a bamboo, particularly in the heart of England, there is an unknown X-factor. Will it spread or won't it?

Paul Whittaker, the author of Hardy Bamboos - Taming the Dragon, is the pioneer behind these new introductions. He calls the bamboo pictured (Phyllostachys vivax f. aureocaulis) the "eighth wonder of the world" because of its stature and the grandeur of its canes or culms.

New golden canes emerge every June and almost grow before your very eyes. Some canes are bar-coded in green and the fine foliage is set high above the canes. As to spread, in some cases this bamboo does romp away, in others it stands still. You need space for this one and perhaps courage, too.

Supplier: PW Plants, Telephone 01953 888212 or visit www.hardybamboo.com