Phyllostachys atrovaginata (also known as congesta)

Description

🌿 Product Name: Phyllostachys atrovaginata (Congesta / Incense Bamboo)
🎍 Type: Cold-hardy running bamboo
🌱 Botanical Name: Phyllostachys atrovaginata

🪴 Description:
Phyllostachys atrovaginata, also known as Congesta or Incense Bamboo, is a fast-growing, upright bamboo prized for its thick, glossy green canes and distinctive, sweet fragrance 🌿—especially noticeable when the stems are rubbed or cut. It’s highly cold-hardy, tolerant of wet soils, and forms dense, vertical groves that are ideal for tall screens, hedging, or architectural accents.

🌾 Key Features:

• 🌿 Strong, upright culms with a clean, vertical form

• 🍃 Sweet, incense-like scent from fresh canes

• 💧 Tolerates wetter soils better than most bamboos

• ❄️ Cold-hardy to around -20°C (-4°F)

• 🌤️ Thrives in full sun to part shade

🌳 Ideal For:

• 🌿 Tall privacy screens and natural hedging

• 💧 Moist sites or pondside planting

• 🎋 Scented garden designs and sensory landscaping

• 🪴 Large-scale groves or architectural backdrops

🌱 Growing Info:

• Height: 6–10 m (20–33 ft)

• Spread: Spreading habit; use a rhizome barrier

• Light: Full sun to partial shade

• Soil: Moist, well-drained to wet soils 🌱

• Water: Moderate to high moisture needs 🌿

• Maintenance: Use root control; remove older canes as needed 🍃

🌿 A bold, fast-growing bamboo with fragrance and function—ideal for screens, sensory gardens, and damp or difficult sites.

Unlike most bamboos, it will grow in a wet spot. It has unusually thick culms for it’s height. If you rub the culms at certain times of the year it smells of incense.