Posted on 13th Jan 2015 @ 12:07 AM

Bowdens owners Tim and Ruth Penrose are pleased to welcome Jungle Giants into the fold. After twelve months of discussion, the Shropshire based bamboo specialists have agreed to be taken over by Bowdens. Jungle Giants is the leading bamboo resource centre in the UK with a bamboo collection of over 200 different species – one of the most comprehensive collections of temperate bamboo in the UK and Europe.

Former owner Michael Brisbane developed his passion for bamboos while travelling in the far east, and ran Jungle Giants for 26 years. As the demand for bamboo increased in the UK, Jungle Giants became the nation's leading bamboo resource centre. Jungle Giants' bamboo collection now boasts over 200 different species, and probably one of the most comprehensive collections of temperate bamboo in the UK and Europe.

The bamboo collection was built up from collection trips to the far east and specialists throughout the world. Michael even mounted an expedition to Indonesia to source tropical bamboo for the Eden Project. He has also driven a lot of experimentation with newly introduced species with regard to their hardiness and horticultural merit in British gardens.

Michael's knowledge of bamboo has made him the first call for landscape architects, specifiers and garden designers, many of whom are well-known names in the media. Over the years the company has supplied bamboo to botanical gardens, both in this country and abroad, and most unusually to both Thailand and Malaysia. Other exports have been to Finland, Iceland and Norway.

Jungle Giants was featured in the RHS magazine The Garden in September 2014.

As well as adding to our pool of plant experts, Michael is also working with Bowdens on producing a larger volume of the new species of bamboo Borinda papyrifera. They are a non invasive, clumping bamboo with fantastic powdery blue - grey culms. A definite must for any bamboo fan.


Jungle Giants joins an ever-inreasing list of acquisitions by Bowdens including:

• PW Plants
• Richards Hardy Ferns
• World of Ferns
• The Pot and Grass Company
• The Outdoor Space Company