Invasive species known as 'SAS of the plant world' and could cost you thousands

01 October 2023 , 22:16

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The invasive species can poke through into your neighbours' gardens (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Bamboo is a hugely popular plant in the UK due to its long life and durability - but it can be very damaging to your property, a gardening expert has warned.

The “highly invasive” plant is strong enough to punch through your driveway and has the capacity to cost you thousands if you let it grow out of control. A non-native species to the UK, it actually spreads at a different rate here than in its native habitats.

Bamboo is categorised as “running” or “clumping” bamboo. The former variety is the one which poses a risk to your garden, as it sprouts structures several metres long called rhizomes - which are the start of what eventually becomes new canes of bamboo.

Managing director of Root Barrier Store Jon Barton said bamboo is a “marvellous example of nature at its resilient best”. He added: “If bamboo's characteristics were paralleled with human qualities, it would be a soldier, a marine or a SAS operative. It is incredibly tenacious, strong and able to survive where other plants can't.”

It is often compared with Japanese knotweed, the notoriously invasive plant spreading around the UK. But bamboo, unlike knotweed, is a popular plant - which people deliberately put down in their gardens.

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Mr Barton told the Sun: "Allowing bamboo to encroach onto a neighbouring property can cause disputes. However, when it starts to spread under the neighbour's tarmac and pushes up towards the daylight, it then becomes a costly problem to resolve. Frequently, a new drive becomes necessary because a patch-up won't resolve the underlying issue."

So if you find yourself considering bamboo for your garden, you may want to think twice - if you can’t be certain it won’t push into your neighbour’s property.

Last year, we reported how homeowners were issued an urgent warning after a home faced £100,000 worth of damage caused by a running bamboo plant. Bamboo was planted at the property to form some of the border hedges, but allegedly it was left unmonitored and grew as a result.

The plant's roots grew underneath the next-door home and broke through its concrete floor. It then continued to grow through the property's cavity walls and eventually, it would have forced the walls apart if it hadn't been tackled.

The only way to solve the problem was to dig up the ground floor of the Hampshire house and remove hundreds of metres of bamboo rhizomes. The home insurance claim for the damage was apparently more than £100,000, reports the Express.

Alex Croft