On Oct 19, 7:13 pm, "p.k." wrote:

The so called clump forming P.aurea is a notorious runner in the southern
states of the US
ie it likes it hot!

Indeed it does, but it doesn't always need US style heat to get it
going. At my old (work) place, there was a large mixed bed, which had
been planted with P. aurea as a focal point about 8 years previously.
Not only had the bamboo inundated that bed, but was sending up shoots
into the surrounding grass in true Sasa fashion. Overall, the clump
was at least 25 feet across.

Conveniently, my students were looking at different propagation
techniques at the time and the Phyllostachys provided them with the
opportunity to carry out some fairly radical division techniques.
Later in the year, there were rows of large containers containing
sizeable divisions of P. aurea (mainly 8' plus) already sending
rhizomes over the pot rims.

In John McMillan's post, he mentions widespread flowering of Fargesia
nitida stocks. We had a hedge of this bordering neighbouring fields.
Over a couple of years (2004/05), a few clumps started flowering while
others remained firmly in the vegetative state. I'd half hoped to
see wholesale flowering and subsequent dying since such events can
provide extra interest and discussion in lessons when they occur 'on
your doorstep'. Until early this spring at least, that hedge was
still looking pretty good, with just a couple of thin patches.

There's certainly been a problem with nitida flowering (two out of
three in a neighbour's garden 'went west' a couple of years ago), but
I don't think it has been quite so simultaneous or wholesale as
predicted by some. As Echinosum observes, there are some extremely
fine forms of this and murielae that do not give cause for concern.