MORROW, Ohio — Most any producer would want to have a niche market. Jerry Burton and his son, Zach, found such a market with bamboo, a business that has flourished as rapidly as the plant itself.

 

“I started growing bamboo in 1978,” Burton said. “I was in the insurance business in Centerville, Ohio, and that allowed for the time and income to travel and research this exotic plant. It wasn’t common in our climate at that time and I wanted to learn more.

“I called the Ohio Department of Agriculture and asked them about it and they really knew nothing, so I started out by growing 10 pots of the plant in 1978. There are 1,200 varieties of bamboo and most don’t tolerate Ohio’s winters. I found there are 30 varieties that do well here in Ohio.”

Burton’s Bamboo Garden, a 30-year family business operated by this father-son partnership, sells bamboo, offers tours and does professional bamboo garden installations.

The largest part of this family venture is growing and shipping bamboo to more than 20 U.S. and Canadian zoos to feed red pandas. Each animal consumes roughly 8 pounds of the plant each week. “Bamboo is the fastest-growing plant in the world,” Burton said. “It also emits more oxygen than the trees with their leaves. Bamboo is far more dense with leaves, and they don’t shed those leaves in the winter. Bamboo is extremely fast-growing. We harvest it fresh every week, all year.”

The landscape at Burton’s Bamboo Garden includes 22 acres of ground with a seven-acre lake. Visitors to the property, which includes many senior citizen tours, will find a multitude of bamboo varieties as well as exotic birds (black-shouldered peacocks, peahens, Phoenix chickens, emus, rheas and a cassowary named Clarice) wandering freely on the premises.

While the exotic animals are certain to draw the eye, the waving groves of bamboo are the real attention-getter, with more than 50 species of bamboo the two men have collected and nurtured. Most of the bamboo found in Burton’s garden is native to China.

“There are many uses for bamboo, other than feed at zoos,” he said. “Bamboo makes great flooring, musical instruments, bricks used for interior decorating and, believe it not, clothing.”

Bamboo growers (and especially neighbors of these growers) are warned that bamboo has a tendency to travel and spread on a horizontal path. “There are two kinds of bamboo,” Burton said. “The clumping kind doesn’t spread, but it doesn’t tolerate cold weather. The running kind thrives in Ohio’s cold weather, because it’s from the cold areas of China.”

The hardy, running-type of bamboo gets a bad name because if left unchecked, it can become invasive. Growing such bamboo requires the use of deep-rooted bamboo barriers, helping to keep the plants in place rather than moving into a neighbor’s yard.

The 24-inch guards are sunk 22 inches into the ground so the roots cannot spread. There is also a 2-inch lip above the ground to keep the bamboo from “jumping the fence.” Jerry recommends using bamboo guards for all bamboo plants not grown in containers.

Zach plans on continuing his father’s bamboo gardens. “When I was growing up, I didn’t think much of Dad’s love for the bamboo,” he said. “I was young, but as I grew older I learned more about the plant, and when Dad retires I plan to expand the garden and make it even bigger and better.”

Burton’s Bamboo Garden is located at 7352 Gheils Carroll Road in Morrow. The business can be called at 513-646-7687.