Bamboo World (Hardcover)

~ Victor Cusack (Author), Deirdre Stewart (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

'Each year during the shoot season, we stand spellbound in our beautiful botanical garden, gazing in awe at the newly emerging shoots of tropical giant bamboos. They thrust the earth aside in great clods as they heave their mighty bulk from beneath the earth.'

The object of this book is to communicate a wealth of knowledge, both scientific and practical, to those with little knowledge of the fabulous clumping bamboos of the world. Few people seem to be aware of the existence of these clumping bamboos. Their experience and attitudes have been soured by the invasive running bamboos.

The Western world is not yet taking clumping bamboos seriously. Most Asian countries treat this fastest growing, annually renewable resource with great reverence. Bamboo feeds them, houses them, graces and shades their environment. It is used to make their musical instruments, cooking and eating utensils, furniture, hunting weapons, and ceremonial artifacts. It even provides the reinforcement for their concrete. Bamboo provides their carrying and storage baskets, lamps and lampshades, ropes and strings, roof tiles and hats, and has hundreds of other practical and spiritual uses.

Bamboo World distils simple practical advice on using bamboo for a wealth of applications. It draws on both traditional village technology and modern scientific research, accumulated over the author's many years of travel, practice, research, growing, and association with village communities and scientists from many countries.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia (August 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743200667
• ISBN-13: 978-0743200660
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 8.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,042,383 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeously Illustrated Book on Growing Tropical Bamboos, August 12, 2000

By	Mark Hubbard (Eureka, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The authors are among the English-speaking world's leading authorities on selecting, propagating, managing, harvesting and utilizing tropical bamboos (as ornamentals and windbreaks, as nursery stock, as food crops, and as structural material for fine furniture, musical instruments and building construction), and they bring an enthusiasm and joy to the topic that are simply unequaled. Even without the detailed and practical text, which will benefit bamboo enthusiasts wherever they live and whatever species they choose to grow, the scores of gorgeous full-color photographs of tropical bamboos are alone worth more than the modest cost of this large, handsome volume. (Note that imported books of bamboo color photography often cost $80 to $100 or more, yet lack the high-quality printing and binding of this book.) Many of us in the north may never see bamboos like these outside of conservatories (unless we travel to warmer climates), and their sheer size, beauty, strength, color and variations are breathtaking. Without a doubt, the Cusacks and this book will do more to promote tropical bamboos than any work previously published. Every bamboo lover will want to own a copy of Bamboo World.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enthusiastic and very practical, August 20, 2001

By	Laurence Lundblade (San Diego, Ca USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The author has an agenda: undo the bad reputation Bamboo has as impossibly invasive by pointing out that this is true only of running bamboo the only good characteristic of which is that it grows in colder places. This is a fine agenda. That is I liked this book because the author gardens in a climate similar to the one I live (Mediteranian) in unlike most other gardening/Bamboo books which are more suited to England. (do gardners in England write books all winter?)

The author clearly enjoys working with Bamboo and his enthusiasm comes through everywhere making the book enjoyable.

The books is very practicle giving details on growing, propagation, harvesting, cooking, treating and construction. Everything you might ever do with Bamboo.

I've looked at a few other Bamboo books and this is by far the most detailed and useful.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent and comprehensive, February 3, 2002

By	"baliktad" (St. Louis, MO United States) - See all my reviews

An excellent resource which I have used extensively both for agricultural research as well as for my home garden. The most comprehensive guide to bamboo culture that I have come across. Highly recommended.