Although they grow more lushly in sheltered conditions, bamboos are wind-tolerant. Warm winds from the south and west do little harm unless very severe, or salt-laden. Colder north and east winds sometimes cause browning of leaf tips and margins in winter, but damaged foliage is replaced by new growth from spring onwards.

Most bamboos will grow in sun or shade. Certain groups, however, do have slight preferences. Bamboos such as Drepanostachyum,  and Thamnocalamus from high-altitude areas often have small, paper-thin leaves and benefit from some shade, otherwise the leaves will temporarily curl up when exposed to strong sunlight. Most of the shorter bamboos will grow in heavy shade: in their native environments they are plants of the forest floors More open positions should be given to Phyllostachys, which can become drawn in too much shade.

Are there no disadvantages to bamboo? The joy of bamboo has always greatly outweighed the need to control some of the running root plants, and for me it simply does not register as a disadvantage. Perhaps the only slight irritation arises from the leaf litter of one big Phyllostachys drifting onto the adjacent lawn. This does require tidying up when mowing the lawn and would probably aggravate the perfectionist. Although an abnormal event, it was quite hard work digging up the several Fargesia muriaelli plants which did not survive the recent flowering. They may only be surface rooting but the size and weight of the rootball was amazing!

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