You will probably be most successful if you purchase bamboo from a place www.bambooplantation.com or by trading with someone on here who knows something about bamboo... I started in your shoes about a year ago and it has been a strugle to find good quality inexpensive plants. I have tried bamboo seed and that did not work. The few plants I have won off of ebay have turned out well. The three that I bought from the plantation are doing well and were of good quality. ALso, he accepts paypal which is good for me. Hopefully this helps, thanks Cliff

Most every body started the same way, Cliff, I've walked your path this year... and I couldn't agree more with you about Bambooplantation, I emailed and called about a dozen of mail order bamboo vendors all over the country, and Bambooplantation was by far the best, they sell good quality bamboos, you wouldn't beleive how tall those plants they sent! forget bidding on ebay, go with some place you can call on the phone who can give you the best answer and service right away...

Do a lot of research on the Net before you spend a lot of money for bamboos, to know what kind of bamboo you want and what kind will survive the winter weather in your area, learn how to care for them...

Follow this forum whenever you can, sometimes there will be some bamboo lovers like you and me will post a msg here with their surplus bamboo for trade... you can write to them and offer what you have for trade, and if you don't have plants to trade, you can offer them some fee and see if they can mail you some for a reasonable fee... don't just offer postage, put in consideration these people have to use lots of tape, they are not doing this for living, they have go find boxes, especially nowaday gasline price is so high, and people need to drive to the post office to mail them to you...

My best kept secret source is Fred :-) he would help you what he can, and he takes pride for his bamboos, there are lots of people who reading this forum has been his fans :)

Hope this helps

Roger

Definite Fred Fan here....