[DeeCee Dubya]

Please reply if you have first-hand experience using bamboo in your landscaping. The good the bad and the ugly.
Thanks, Doug

[Two Bills]

Clump forming is good.
All other bamboo is a thug and spreads everwhere.
JMTC.

[Bjeanj]

We had some in our yard when we bought our home. Grows very tall, very quickly. Thicker shoots are difficult to trim. Sends out roots and spreads where you don’t want it. VERY dense root system. Cannot thin it out.

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by DeeCee Dubya

Please reply if you have first-hand experience using bamboo in your landscaping. The good the bad and the ugly.
Thanks, Doug

I have not. It has a bad reputation;

Clumping Bamboo - University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

[tophcfa]

Spreads like wildfire and difficult to remove, bad combination for the small lots in the Villages.

[Happydaz]

I have it and it is growing on the side of my house. It was supposed to grow up to six feet tall but grows higher in my yard. This is Florida and things grow bigger! I do trim it to keep it under control. It is a clumping variety of bamboo, similar to what The Villages plants off the multi modal paths down around 466A. Running types are not good to plant as they become invasive. The clumping types are like a clump of landscape grass that grows a little wider each year. Just keep an eye on it! Removing it would be a tough job of digging, but I haven’t felt the need to do that. It looks good and gives a tropical feel to the yard. My wife and I like it.

[DangeloInspections]

There are two types, clumping and spreading. You want the clumping. Many varieties. One of the more popular is called green stripe.
Not too far from here there is a nursery that specializes in only Bamboo. They are on Rt 19 in Groveland.
I would speak to them rather than get opinions here on the subject. Their website is Bamboo from Florida for Privacy & Beauty. Fast-Growing, Non-Invasive Florida grown Clump and Running Bamboos, near Orlando, Florida | Need Privacy? Want Beauty? Plant Bamboo! Fast-Growing, Non-Invasive Florida grown Clump and Running Bamboos - Giant, Their phone number is 352-429-2425. Hope that helps!

[Tmarkwald]

It is an amazing tree/plant whatever. It will grow to cover a half acre in less than a year. The only way to keep it under control that I know of is stainless steel barriers about 3 feet deep as a wall because this stuff grows like crazy. You'll think its under control and then 30 feet away on the other side of you driveway it will pop up. The root system travels that far. The only way I have seen it eradicated once it's gone rogue is with a backhoe and a compete removal of all the earth down 3 feet. In some areas, mortgage companies will not even consider a home with bamboo growing on it..

It's beautiful, but very bad news to have bamboo on your property.

https://www.hg.org/legal-articles/pr...who-pays-46847

Should seller have disclosed bamboo on the property? (PA) : RealEstate

bamboo | Tree and Neighbor Law For Homeowners and Professionals

Q: My neighbor’s bamboo is becoming a problem for my property. What can I do to keep it under control? - UF/IFAS Extension Nassau County

[Two Bills]

We have had a clump of Black Bamboo, (Phyllostachys nigra) it hides a neighbors shed, in our garden in UK for years.
Easy to control, highest it has reached is about ten foot but average stems are 6-8foot.
It requires little or no maintainance, we just cut out poor and broken stems annually.
You treat it as a grass, which it is, but we never feed ours, so expansion is very slow.
Grows green then stems turn black.
Stear clear of the fast growing and 'travelling' varieties.
They are a menace!

[Willis56]

All of the above and shedding too.

[bobdeb]

On my personal list of 'things not to plant' in TV. As opposed to 'things I wish I had never planted' in TV.

[skippy05]

In 1988 I took a tiny sprig of bamboo home and planted it in the corner of my father's vegetable garden so that he would have a free source of bamboo canes to use as stakes in his garden. Two years later he was very unhappy with what I had done. The bamboo was uncontrollable and unstoppable. UNREAL invasive and can even travel UNDER driveways to spread to the other side. Just try to stop it once it has established itself. You can not. No amount of digging or herbicides can stop it once it has taken a good grip with its rhizomes root system. I would ONLY recommend planting it if you have lots of acres of land and do not care if great portions of it are overtaken by this beautiful but uncontrollabel plant.

[irishwonone]

I would not recommend bamboo near your home. You will notice TV used it on the outside of privacy walls but not right next to homes. We are dealing with it currently as prior owner planted it. Uncontrollable as we cut it down but near impossible to remove from ground and it grows back. Believe me you don’t want this close to your home. If you have 3/4 to one acre property size it could work.

[annerussell]

I have bamboo and apparently it is the spreading kind. Wish I had read these replies before I put it in. On the other hand, I love it. It is about 6 -8 feet tall and I have it trimmed every year or so. I did have steel barriers put in to keep it from growing in front of the electrical equipment in my yard (cut it out in that spot at the request of SECO )
It makes a beautiful backdrop in the yard and affords real privacy.

[DangeloInspections]

Here is a paragraph right from the nursery website;

One of the first things to decide when you are thinking about planting bamboo is whether to get clumping bamboo or running bamboo. Clumping bamboos are similar in growth habit to any shrub. They grow gradually outward from the center with new canes growing taller and getting larger in diameter every year. The most important characteristic of clump bamboos is that, unlike running bamboos, they do not spread by sending underground shoots far away from the main plant. A clumping variety of bamboo is a safe and attractive plant to add to any landscape. It is NOT invasive. For a privacy hedge, plant clumping bamboos anywhere from 4- to 10-feet apart. When planted 4- to 6-feet apart in enriched, irrigated soil, clumping varieties will form a solid hedge in just one growing season. If planted further apart, it will take a couple years longer. Either way, in a short time clumping bamboos form a tall, thick green border with towering canes that bend in the breeze.
Unlike clumping bamboos, running bamboos do send shoots away from the mother plant and have the potential to be invasive. In some varieties the new shoots will travel only a few inches but in other runners the shoots might travel 10-feet or more away from the mother plant. While this may present a problem in certain landscapes, in other situations it is a positive characteristic. When planted 3- to 10-feet apart, the growth pattern of running bamboos enables them to turn into dense and beautiful hedges. They can be controlled by mowing a wide (10′ to 25′) area around the planting bed, with a bamboo barrier, or by a natural barrier such as a body of water, a road, or a pasture which is grazed or mowed regularly.
Running bamboos grow taller and thicker in cooler climates than they do in more tropical settings. While we can grow many varieties of running bamboo in Florida, the plants don’t develop as impressively in our climate as they do in more temperate parts of the country. On the other hand, clumping bamboos prefer a tropical climate where temperatures rarely go below 15 to 28 degrees. Both clumping and running bamboos will provide a quick impenetrable hedge, graceful grove, or attractive spot planting.

My neighbor planted some clumping bamboo along one side of their birdcage to give privacy to their pool. They did this 15 years ago. It has NOT spread and has stayed where they wanted it. Looks great, does the job. Minimal care needed.