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ID Help & Suggestions

Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2022 6:39 pm
by Citizen Cane Pole
Hello - my first post here so please excuse any etiquette mistakes.

My wife and I live inn Houston, Texas US and want to plant bamboo along our concrete wall to provide a creen from our neighbor's three story home next door. The bamboo in the attached photo would work but I don't know the type. I assume it has been trimmed to look like it does.

We have grown black bamboo as well as clumping bamboo for 20 years at our old house. The clumping bamboo was certainly tall enough but migrated about fifteen feet over time and died out where it was originally. We only need about 20' of height to get some privacy. We have a narrow planting bed between pool and concrete wall with a 2 feet deep footer on the wall.

We have seen some yellow-stalked bamboo for sale online that was very exotic but am afraid it was just a camera filter.

Any advice will be appreciated!

Dan O
927a7eaffd75af4c91315edba5f73755.jpg

Re: ID Help & Suggestions

Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2022 3:56 pm
by needmore
Greetings, your 2' of width in the planter is a little narrow but might work OK, the clumps will fill that space pretty quickly so you might need to sawzall/remove some rhizome/rootball to maintain it. I don't know which yellow bamboo you saw but in CA in a similar winter zone to you I grew this one pretty easily (Bambusa eutuldoides 'Viridivittata'), it can take a little bit of frost, and is likely good to 28-29F for brief periods. These are not my photos I'd have to search for mine but I found it to be a very good potential screener that produce lots of culms fairly quickly and I had to frequently prune some out to keep the look I wanted.

https://www.bambooweb.info/images/bambo ... es.vv2.jpg
https://www.bambooweb.info/images/bambo ... tta001.jpg

Your photo might be a form of Bambusa textilis, not sure but probably is, and was branch pruned for that look.

Re: ID Help & Suggestions

Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2022 4:02 pm
by Citizen Cane Pole
Thanks, Brad - how tall did yours get? We need a height of appx 20' to obscure our yard but the name you gave us really helps.

Re: ID Help & Suggestions

Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2022 4:50 pm
by needmore
I only had mine for about 2 years and it was in the 12-14' range then, it would get to 20' unless severe cold whacks it back, but I can not say how long it would take. Bambusa textilis - a green bamboo, would get to 20' faster, is more cold tolerant, and it an outstanding vertical screener - superior to the yellow I mentioned so if you are cool with green, go with it.

Re: ID Help & Suggestions

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2022 11:46 am
by Citizen Cane Pole
Brad - thanks for your input. I now know at least two Latin names for bamboo we might like!

I have also located Houston Bamboo Gardens in south Houston area so I will pay them a visit for a closer look at bambusa textilis and bambusa nana which looks promising. Perhaps even a Buddah Belly could work.

Re: ID Help & Suggestions

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2022 4:17 pm
by needmore
That is a great plan!