Articles & Texticles

Arundinaria tessellata Artwork

It occurred to me recently that it is now 20 years since I founded the Bamboo Network, that evolved into The Bamboo Society which is still going strong.

At about the same time, I also started a specialist nursery called Jungle Giants.

Part of the marketing emphasis of Jungle Giants was the level of well presented information about the plants it sold. At that time there was very little knowledge of temperate bamboos and so I prepared a series of illustrated data cards showing the merits of the 32 species in the Jungle Giants inaugural range.

Here are just a few of the original illustrations which were printed out fairly small on the individual data cards (see below), which were presented in a spiffy looking silkscreened transparent pack.

Jungle Giants Bamboo Information Pack Cover

I remember paying what seemed a fortune for the cover illustration by Ashley Potter, who also did the calligraphy for the logo.

There was a spoof guarantee / warning on the reverse of the pack’s cover, inspired by a Frank Zappa album cover, mashed up with the warnings on the back of cigarette packs of the era.

Arundinaria tessellata Card

Phyllostachys aureosulcata Artwork

Phyllostachys nigra henonis Artwork

Phyllostachys viridi-glaucescens Artwork

Phyllostachys viridis mitis Artwork

As a brief it was quite a tough call to illustrate 32 bamboo species in black and white line drawings, but the drawings drew favourable comment from specialist bamboo collectors (Yes, there are such people!) for their portrayal of the different species. Given that many bamboo species are incredibly difficult to tell apart from one another, I had to accept that as a compliment.

By the time I sold the company to Michael Brisbane in the early 1990’s I had amassed about 140 species of mostly temperate bamboos.

I’m scanning a folio full of these drawings to prepare them for auction on eBay in a couple of weeks time. The original selection of 32 bamboo species grew and grew season by season, so there’s a big stack of artwork to put through the scanner.

The artwork images above are all drawn in acrylic paint onto A4 sheets of bristol board, or some similar type of hot press illustration board.

Here’s a link to the current online catalogue of plants offered by Jungle Giants (Prop. Michael Brisbane).

There’s a wonderfully old school web page showing the Bamboo Society’s activities, and a brilliantly eccentric collection of 1000 things made of bamboo put together by Wolfgang Eberts, a 3rd generation nurseryman, bambusophile and dendrologist from Baden-Baden.

The picture below might help you to understand my fondness for bamboos.

Drepanostachyum hookerianum