Uses & Benefits of THYSANOLAENA TIGER GRASS

• Different species of bamboo have different levels of bushiness, and amount of branches on the culms. Some species come naturally clean stemmed and feature the poles with foliage up the top. Other great screening species are bushy from the top down to ground level.
• A commonly desired look is cleaning out the lower foliage of a bamboo, to feature the culms colour or style. This will create a very sleek modern look. Doing this also allows air flow and light through the lower plant. A great proportion is the bottom 1/3 cleaned out, and the top 2/3 left bushy. You can also create a ‘topiary’ effect on certain species.
• You can trim BRANCHES shorter, if, for example, your bamboo has some long branches growing over a pathway. If you don’t want to remove the entire branch & lose some screening, simply trim the branch to the preferred length.
• Generally speaking your bamboo branches won’t prolifically grow back these removed branches, so you won’t be maintaining this regularly. On the flip side, if you trim too much and want some density back, you can encourage new growth with fertiliser water & some TLC.

Tiger Grass is well known for its similiar look to bamboo, even though it is a giant clumping grass! The main difference is that Tiger Grass does not have branches (it leafs straight off the culm) and it has grass flowers at the top each year. It grows to around 3-4mtrs in height and cannot be trimmed shorter.

​GUIDE OF THYSANOLAENA TIGER GRASS

• It has a vase shaped growth habit with very large tropical green leaves. The natural footprint size of the clump is 1mtr however this wonderful species can be planted into narrower garden beds down to 50cm, provided the air space is available for it to naturally fan out. It looks fantastic incorporated into tropical gardens or used as a wide filler plant for screening.
• Tiger Grass grows circular in the footprint, so plant them the same distance apart as the width you have available. Eg. if your planting trench is 80cm wide, you would plant them 80cm apart to form a dense screen. The narrower the space, the closer you plant the Tiger Grass together. For more information, talk to one of our helpful and knowledgable staff members for professional advice on your garden. Different circumstances have different solutions!
• Tiger Grass is extremely quick growing and can be fully grown within 18 – 24 months, or quicker if you purchase more established sizes! Tiger Grass is fairly low maintenance and drought tolerant once established, though looks much better with regular water through dry periods.