OK, I am curious why everyone wants an arm and a leg for a start of bamboo? It is just a grass, it will take at least 3-4 years to start looking like a grove, you can make a grove out of one good start of bamboo (in about ten years), and yet everyone wants $75-$100 or more for a 12 inch plant. I am not rich people. Bamboo is grass and should be priced as such.
Roses are very interesting plants, but I dont see people charging a lot for them. I could buy 12 apple trees for the cost of one start of bamboo, or 12 pine trees and grow a very nice privacy screen in a couple years that bears fruit and seeds. Yes, bamboo can get pretty big and has somewhat of a rapid growth rate, once it is established, but after all it is still just big grass.

I also see these discussion forums about spreading the idea of using bamboo for decoration. They tell the common man that it is grass, evergreen, and can be hard to contain. Making a barrier can be more expensive than putting bamboo in the barrier. The barrier is usually 2-3 dollars per foot, plus the time and effort to dig an area to put the barrier in (figure one side of a barrier to make a privacy screen at 100 feet long and double it, now figure the end width at 5-10 feet now double it....now multiply by two dollars), or you can add the cost to rent a trencher(if you dont want to dig by hand). If people really want to spread the idea of using bamboo in a garden, then come down on the prices. Really! Who would pay $100 for a start of kentucky bluegrass, or ragweed? If you know of anyone, let me know....

If everyone would trade a bamboo start for a bamboo start, or charge only shipping/packaging, it would be much more feasable for everyone to get the types of bamboo (grass) they desire. These nurseries and private parties that probaly got their bamboo start from a friend for free or found it growing wild somewhere, are making a fortune by selling you grass at a majorly inflated price.

I am sure if you have read anything about bamboo, you have heard of the grove in Anderson, South Carolina. This one man has a nursery and tells the story of how he got a start of bamboo from Anderson, South Carolina. Now he sells bamboo starts for $80. Yeah, it is a good business for him. He got something for free, and now makes $80 minimum per bamboo start he sells. Amazing profit. Many upon many people have bought bamboo from the nursery. If the people who bought from the nursey would only give a start or two away on occasion, would the nursery be making $80 a start on moso bamboo? You could save about $60-$70 on a start of moso bamboo, and then turn around a year or so later and give a couple starts away or in trade, and save yourself alot of money on the bamboo types you want. Why pay an out rageous price for something someone found growing pretty much wild and got for free? Take that $100 and go to Anderson, South Carolina. Find yourself a good size chunk of rhizome and save yourself 10 years of waiting for a good size bamboo culm.