A bargain-loving gardener couldn’t resist a massive plant discount at the supermarket but what seemed like a huge win soon had others warning him he may have made a big mistake
Lots of people love a bargain, whether it’s clothes, shoes, homeware or even plants but sometimes you can be left questioning why a product is being sold for such a low price. There is a variety of plants you can buy from supermarkets to grow in your garden.
Some are easier to take care of than others and a British man called Dan, who shares budget gardening tips and tricks on TikTok, bought some evergreen bamboo from Morrisons. It was reduced from £30 to £1.50 so he bought four of the plants after being unable to resist this huge bargain.
Bamboo is known for its bold, upright cane and evergreen foliage and there are two main types – clump formers and runners.
Dan shared a video on the social media platform where he can be seen taking the bamboo out of the pots they came in to plant them into the soil next to his garden shed.
After examining them closer and noticing how “dead” they looked, he confessed: “I was under no illusion that they might be a complete waste of six quid but for that price I couldn’t leave them so we’ll see how it goes.”
The gardening fan gave each of the plants a tidy-up and added: “So this is them after their haircut. I’m skeptical. This one I’m not so sure about, this one could be ok but all of them do have green shoots which im kinda hopeful for and it grows like a b***** weed anyway so we’ll see how it goes.”
Bamboo has a reputation for being problematic and it seems that Dan knew this and in the caption of his TikTok post he wrote: “Was this a mistake? Have I caused myself future trouble?”
The clip has garnered thousands of views and hundreds of likes and comments. One user exclaimed: “Worst mistake ever putting them in the ground!”
Another admitted: “I gasped out loud when you said in the ground.” A third warned: “Don’t do it. Bamboo spreads all over the garden.”
Someone else urged: “Get them out of the ground now and get them in a planter. They’ll run rabid!”
The running bamboo type can be very invasive as it produces long underground stems, known as rhizomes, that grow away from the main plant and will grow uncontrollably if allowed, according to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).
Examples include Arundinaria, Pleioblastus, Pseudosasa and Phyllostachys, which was the bamboo variety Dan unknowingly bought as he realised in a follow-up video after checking the label on the plants.
Running bamboo can quickly get out of control and grow beyond the borders of your home and spread into neighbouring properties.
The RHS states that this kind of bamboo can be contained by inserting a vertical barrier into the ground.
It advises for large plants, like Phyllostachys, to have enough room to grow the barrier should enclose an area at least 2.5m in diameter.
In his follow-up video Dan dug the bargain bamboo plants out of the ground after plenty of users warned him about his mistake.