I'm guessing your best bet for a large runner would be P. Nigra 'Henon'.
You should see serious expansion by the third year and each year after. Some growth before then if you take good care. Are you prepared to do annual root pruning to keep your boo in check?

My recommendation would be one runner- especially with your goal of large culms. If you want to experiment with more, leave a niche or 3 for some clumping species. I'm not going to pretend to be well versed on those, though. Maybe Kentuck can help.

Daniel,

Based on the size of your yard I would suggest a couple of upright Bambusas such as B. tuldoides or B. olhamii, but it really depends on what you want in terms of type, culm color, size, style, etc. In Spring TX, you are relatively close to Mercer BG and may want to take a look at some of their bamboo before you make a final decision. There is a bamboo group that meets there every fourth Saturday of each month from about 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. if you want to talk to someone. http://www.hcp4.net/parks/pdf/MercerSpring2006Calendar.pdf
http://www.hcp4.net/mercer/general.htm

A small mail order plant will take several years to get to a decent size. The plant that has seemed to size up the fastest for me has been B. ventricosa followed by Ph. vivax. In this area, Ph. viridis seems to get to be about the largest runner with 3" culms at 50'+ high.

Mike near Brenham TX

Here is a link that might be useful: Mercer Bamboo Meetings

This nice lady was giving away Henon if you would dig it in the Magnolia area.Her name is Seiko.
E-mail Address
seikoz8b@swbell.net

Thanks for the responses.

I found some bamboo locally to dig, but I read one or two places that you should only divide bamboo before it shoots in the spring or after it's done shooting in the late fall. So should I wait til October or something before digging up and transplanting?

On a side note. I've got a spot next to my front patio about 4' radius that I would like to plant a clumper. The problem is that the soil in the front can stay wet for a day or so after a rain. And it seems that clumpers need well drained soil. Would digging out more of the dirt than necessary and filling with better soil be good enough for a clumper since it won't be spreading much?

Any recommendations for a clumper that doesn't grow huge, maybe 10' or so max?

Thanks,
Daniel