Janet Baraclough wrote:
I've deleted the post where someone suggested phyllostachys as a
hedging plant. I'm not sure that's a good idea :-)

Two years ago I planted a single plant of p aureocaulis from a 6" pot,
thinking it's a clumpforming one. Last year, it put up a couple of
modest little culms close to the originals. Yesterday, I was weeding
that bed and looked around for signs of new ones coming up in the same
spot..no sign. Then I became aware of something jabbing my bum, and
found I was squatting on top of a 20 " spear about 18 inches away
from the original plant.

Then I spotted loads more spears, coming up in a ring around the
mother plant with a diameter of nearly three feet. Talk about not
seeing the wood for the trees. I'm revising my notion of "clump".

Fortunately the bamboo is planted in a walled raised bed so for the
momnet it's still contained. The stone walls are about 1 ft higher
than the surrounding lawn. Will this be deep enough to restrict the
bamboo's roots, or will they dive underneath it?



in a 5m*4m area I removed 30m of runner from a single plant of the Golden
Bamboo last summer.

British books have it down as clump forming, American hot climate books have
it down as a notorious runner!

pk