Looking up through a stand of blue bamboo.
Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
Black bamboo
Giant bamboo
Sunburst bamboo
Seabreeze bamboo
By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley
Anyone who understands the exotic appeal of bamboo will want to visit the Tropical Bamboo Nursery and Gardens in Loxahatchee.
Here you’ll find about 250 varieties, making this the largest in-ground tropical bamboo collection in the world, according to owner Robert Saporito. Most of the plants here were hand-collected by Saporito in places as far away as Thailand, China and Myanmar.
His business is a result of his love affair with these exotic grasses that he discovered as a young helicopter mechanic working in remote regions of the world, including coastal South America, Trinidad and the Baja Peninsula of Mexico.
“It was the size of the bamboo that drew me to it,” he says.
He remembers seeing the 100-foot-high timber bamboos for the first time and feeling dwarfed next to their culms or canes that were about 8 inches in diameter. “It was like being in Gulliver’s Travels,” he says.
When the helicopter business was bought out in 2001, Saporito decided to change careers. He cashed out his stock, bought five acres in Loxahatchee and opened his nursery the following year. Since then it has grown to 13 acres.
We visited Saporito and his nursery a few days after Hurricane Matthew, and the public areas were a bit rough. But he is working to bring them back.
Just off the parking lot, you’ll see the giant Guadua timber bamboo used in the construction of a pavilion as well as a pagoda-style lookout tower that, if you climb its circular staircase, provides an overview of the nursery.
Here, too, you’ll see how bamboo can be used in the landscape. Whether trimmed to form a hedge, left tall and thick to offer privacy or chosen for the exotic color and shape of its culms, bamboo offers abundant variety.
Take, for example, the Timor black bamboo that is prized for its lustrous black canes. Another popular variety seems to be the dwarf Buddha belly with its swollen internodes that look something like, well, Buddha’s belly.
“When I first saw it, I was horrified and thought it was repulsive. But now I understand that it’s one of those grotesquely weird, cool plants. I get it,” Saporito says.
And don’t miss the blue bamboo, whose culms are covered with a white powder. Saporito explains that the powder disappears with time but in the young bamboo it serves a purpose.
When you see a bamboo shoot just beginning to grow, you’ll note that the height comes as the culms telescope from the center upward. The powder acts as a lubricant as the shoot extends itself.
When you finish exploring this area, move to the opposite side of the parking lot, where you’ll find what might be considered a bamboo botanical garden. Saporito plants all the varieties that he’s imported or gotten from other collectors to see how the bamboos fare in our climate.
He also discovers what properties each has that will make it appealing to those who want to use it in the landscape. It’s while they are growing here he notes how tall and thick the bamboo culms will grow as well as their color, shape and any other properties.
If you see one type of bamboo you particularly like, signs offer you the scientific and popular name as well as country of origin. And a helpful staff is available to answer your questions. If no one is about and you need assistance, just ring the gong in the parking lot and someone will come to greet you.
A note on importing bamboo
Until fairly recently, it was illegal to import bamboo into the United States.
Bamboo is a grass, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture was concerned that bugs and diseases might also be brought into the country that would affect other grass crops such as corn, wheat and sugar cane.
But in 2011, the USDA changed its rules and made it legal to import bamboo if the grasses are hand-harvested in country of origin and then shipped directly to a USDA facility in Beltsville, Md. There they are quarantined for one year before being released to the general population, including nurseries like Tropical Bamboo.
For more information on legal requirements for importing bamboo, see Title 7 Code of Federal Regulation, Chapter 3, Part 319 USDA Animal & Plant Inspection Service Plant Protection and Quarantine, available online at the U.S. Government Publishing Office.
Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley is a master gardener who can be reached at debhartz@att.net.
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