When and How to Prune Heavenly Bamboo

As heavenly bamboo shrubs and my middle school yearbook photos can attest, there’s a fine line between an organic, natural look… and just being a mess.

A well-pruned Nandina domestica manages to rock the “au naturel” aesthetic without looking artificially manicured. But the hairstyle in my junior high headshots? Definitely on the wrong side of “windblown.”

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I can’t go back in time and tell my secondary school self to get a haircut – he wouldn’t listen to me anyway. But I can tell you how to prune heavenly bamboo the right way.

A long segue, I’ll admit, but I brought it back around.

You can learn more about growing heavenly bamboo in our guide.

In this primer, you’ll receive the lowdown on all things heavenly bamboo pruning: the why, what, when, and how. And the who? Well, by the end of the guide, that’ll be you!

Here’s what we’ve got up ahead:

A brief note on invasiveness, before we get started:

A shrub native to Japan and China, heavenly bamboo grows very aggressively, and naturalizes in new environments quite easily.

It’s considered especially invasive in the southeastern United States, with N. domestica appearing on many invasive species lists in states throughout the region.

If your area has a “no heavenly bamboo” rule, then by all means skip this guide and get to work on removing any existing specimens from your landscape.

But if you live in a place where cultivating N. domestica is permitted – and not environmentally irresponsible – then have at this here know-how!

In the gardening game – where your to-do list is never-ending – I’ve found that knowing the