Bamboo

Yes, and the 180cm and 210cm canes are the heights that do it. Set them at even centres so the canopies just touch, and stagger two heights along the run so the top line is not perfectly flat. Bamboo screens by breaking a sightline rather than by forming a solid face, which is what keeps it looking planted rather than built.

Only the UV-rated models. The premium natural cane bamboo at 150cm, 180cm and 210cm and the 180cm potted black bamboo are marked UV resistant and carry UVTex inhibitors bonded within the leaf, so they hold colour in an open position. A fake bamboo without that treatment will yellow through one Australian summer, which is the single most common complaint about untreated canes bought elsewhere.

Natural cane is pale gold with visible nodes and reads warm and traditional. Black bamboo has a dark, near-charcoal culm and reads graphic and contemporary, and it holds its own against dark window frames where a pale cane would disappear. Black is offered at 150cm and 180cm, natural cane at 150cm, 180cm and 210cm.

Narrow, which is the whole point of the form. The canes are gathered into a single pot rather than spread across a canopy, so the floor space taken is close to the pot diameter even on the 210cm model. That is what lets bamboo work in a side passage or a balcony setback where a palm of the same height would not fit.

Bamboo goes up, a palm goes out. Bamboo gives a vertical, linear screen on a tight base and repeats well along a run. Palms spread outward and fill volume, which suits an open corner. Where both are needed, canes along the boundary and a single Areca or Phoenix palm at the corner is the common pairing.

Several models are built on a genuine cane trunk with real touch leaves attached, including the Twiggy Japanese natural bamboo trunk at 90cm and the natural bamboo trunks at 150cm and 180cm. Others use a moulded trunk. The product page states the construction, and it is worth checking where the cane will be touched or seen at close range.

For a corner, three canes at three different heights, for instance 90cm, 150cm and 180cm, gives the layered look in one trough. Along a run, space them so the foliage of neighbouring plants just meets, then check the line from where people will actually stand rather than from directly in front.

Yes. Models such as the 180cm premium artificial bamboo with dark trunk are supplied in a decorative pot ready to stand, while others come in a plain nursery pot intended to sit inside a trough or vessel. Grouping three canes into a single long trough is the arrangement that reads most like a planted stand.