I live in Port St. Lucie, Fl and I am looking for some clumping bamboo for a hedge. I will drive up to 75 miles to get it, I will even dig it myself and pay you for it. I would like to have Hedge bamboo or Alphonse Karr bamboo but it is not necessary.
Thanks
David
David, please make sure that you've arranged to contain the bamboo . . . even clumping bamboo will set runners and spread. If not, you will be less than happy in a few years.
Chris Owens
A barrier system is not necessary with clumping bamboo's. Rhizomes DO NOT run sideways with clumping bamboos and only spread a few inches per year. From what I understand runners do not do well in Florida.
Check out the Florida/Carribean chapter of the American Bamboo Society.
Chris, a few inches a year translates into a couple of feet a decade. Most of them have been eradicated now, but all up and down the East Coast, including in FL, there were estates where someone had planted th fashionable bamboo -- including clumping varieties -- in 1920s; and, then after the Crash, they were abandoned or let go wild. There were places where they literally had to take the bamboo out with a backhoe and burnoff. So, I'd have my control system planned BEFORE I planted the bamboo.
Chris Owens
The only problem is that a clumping bamboo will not be contained. It can exert enormous pressure on whatever it is butting up against. A running bamboo will turn away from the barrier.
This is a photo of a clumping bamboo in a concrete planter.
We are discussing reasonable people doing reasonable things with plants, not what if the world ends tomorrow. For a reasonable person to plant a clumping bamboo without a barrier is not an unreasonable thing or even the end of the world.
Chris
Mogie,
Having grown many species of bamboo for over 15 years I can say that there are _no_ bamboos that need monthly cutting back in order to control them. Chances are you had Arundo donax, which a lot of people mistake for bamboo. It is a true grass, not a bamboo.
Regards,
Bob
Chris, a few inches a year translates into a couple of feet a decade. Most of them have been eradicated now, but all up and down the East Coast, including in FL, there were estates where someone had planted th fashionable bamboo -- including clumping varieties -- in 1920s; and, then after the Crash, they were abandoned or let go wild. There were places where they literally had to take the bamboo out with a backhoe and burnoff. So, I'd have my control system planned BEFORE I planted the bamboo.
Chris Owens
WE had bamboo that needed monthly cutting back. Not a little but it was a major job. This is very invasive. Avoid if possible. Nearly impossible to control.
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