Variegated Malay Dwarf Bamboo Bambusa heterostachya Variegated

The variegated Malay dwarf is the plain green species with its leaves striped in cream, and the striping changes what the plant is for. Green Bambusa heterostachya is a hedge plant. This form is an accent: a clump that brightens a sheltered corner, frames an entry or fills a large pot on a deck, meant to be looked at from close up rather than read as a wall at the far end of the yard.

Variegation has a cost. The pale stripes carry no chlorophyll, so each leaf has less green tissue doing the work, and the plant generally grows more slowly and a little more openly than the green form. A long boundary planted with it takes noticeably longer to close up. If privacy is the main job, plant the green species for the run and save a few striped clumps for the places where you want the colour.

Light, scorch and keeping the stripes

Bright light with some relief from hot afternoon sun suits it. In good light the striping stays crisp, while deep shade dulls the contrast and stretches the culms. The cream sections are the first to brown when the plant runs dry, sits in a hot wind or bakes against a west facing wall, so water it deeply through summer and keep it out of reflected heat. Like the green form it is a warm climate bamboo, at home in Queensland and coastal New South Wales and damaged by hard frost.

Now and then a culm may come up plain green. Reverted growth is stronger than the striped culms around it and, left in, it slowly takes over the clump. Cut any fully green culm out at ground level as soon as you notice it.

Growing it in a pot

This is a bamboo that does well in a container, as long as the container is generous. Choose the widest pot the space allows, wide rather than deep, with free drainage and a quality potting mix. A pot full of bamboo roots can dry out in a single day of hot wind, so check it often in summer, and feed lightly through the warm season with a slow release fertiliser. After a few years the rhizomes pack the pot and growth stalls; lift the plant in spring, saw the root mass into two or three pieces and replant the strongest division in fresh mix. Our guide to growing in pots covers drainage and pot choice in more detail.

In the ground the routine matches the plain form: remove spent culms at ground level at the end of winter, keep the mulch topped up, and leave a sensible gap to pipes and paving, because the clump slowly widens.

The other striped and coloured bamboos

The plain Malay Dwarf Bamboo is the faster, denser screen of the pair and takes clipping as a hedge. If you would rather have the colour in the culms than in the leaf, China Gold Bamboo carries yellow culms with green stripes on a taller plant. Both sit among the Privacy & Screening Plants.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 3 sizes, from 300mm up to 500mm, priced from $179.00 to $339.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Every size here is established stock rather than a starter plant, so this line is intended for immediate effect rather than for growing on. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to fast growing screening plants.