I'll post this here, on another bamboo forum, as I don't know who's where; and also on the trees forum, as one aspect of the question concerns the tree more than the bamboo.

I'm in z9b, I believe, Sunset z16 or 17.

The photo below shows the view from the porch of a shed I'm having built; the second one gives a fuller view of the tree & the edge of the shed. You see the trunk of a black walnut tree, soon to be leafed out, against a fence. Beyond the fence, you see the white railing of a bridge many folk drive into and out of our extended country cul-de-sac, and windows on the right of a house across the street. When the tree is leafed out, all is fine: I have privacy both in from the bridge, and out from my shed porch. But all winter, it's an open book. I want to be able to set a spell in my rocker after the walnut looses its leaves without staring at and being stared at by those crossing the bridge. Here's the photos:

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Planting beneath the walnut has the usual problems associated with jugalone, but more importantly, the ground surface is hard as a rock, and because of the dense tree roots, impervious to digging. The option I'm considering is having my guy build a large planter box [either with or without a bottom to it] along the fence to the right of the tree trunk--maybe 18" high? x 5' long x 18" deep, into which I'd plant maybe 3 5-gal containers of some type of clumping bamboo. [I might also put one plant in another planter to the left of the tree trunk, for visual balance.]

It needs to be

a) tall enough to exceed the height of the 6' fence by a couple of feet, but not so tall as to get all ensconced in the tree when it's leafed out. So maybe we're talking a 8-12' max height....

b) happy in bright dappled shade except for about November to March/April

c) if possible, on the golden end of things color-wise rather than a dark green end...

d) available enough to be easily ordered from my local nursery [my area is generally easy that way].

Regarding the bottomless planter idea, I've used this before when planting an old rose next to a tree. By the time the rose roots got to the ground, it was well enough established to share the ground with the tree. It's worked well, but I don't know how well this would work for clumping bamboo.

Suggestions will be appreciated.

Karen