Ph. dulcis

Thanks. I was thinking that was the sweet spot. I am picking some up tomorrow. I think I'm going to try vivax in another spot too, just because I can't help myself.

bellingham-
Dulcis grows well here (I'm in the Seattle area): the timber is strong, the culms are good size, and the name "dulcis" means sweet...a reference to the shoots.

If you are going to grow vivax, consider the cultivar Ph. vivax 'Aureocaulis.' Below is a photo of mine. A good, local source, is Boxhill Farm in Duvall. They don't ship, but the trip is worth it as they have a large selection of bamboo species at good prices.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ph. vivax 'Aureocaulis'

P. vivax is the more vigorous and robust, hence the name. But it has thin walls and breaks under snow loads. P. bambusoides is an aphid magnet and will not be hardy in Bellingham - we've had problems on Camano Island with both the typical plant and 'Castillon' freezing back in recent winters - the cultivar seems to have pretty much died out at this point.

And it was not cheap.

I've even seen cold damage to P. nigra near Fairhaven. This was after the coldest-in-thirty-years 1990 winter. Due to the Fraser Outflow, up there you have to be sure what you plant has an adequate minimum temperature tolerance. Plants I can keep in Edmonds freeze even as far south as Camano.

bboy-
You're right about Ph. vivax possibly breaking under snow loads. My Ph, vivax 'Aureocaulis' seems to have slightly stronger walls and I've never had snow breakage with it. I usually go out and shake all my bamboo culms to knock off the snow. However, even a couple of years ago, when we had that big snow and cold snap for a couple of weeks, I didn't have any breakage, even though I was away at the time. The Ph. vivax that I have seen fail around here have been the big culms (3-4 inch diameter); maybe they have a proportionately higher snow loading than the younger, smaller culms.

I've had 'Aureocaulis' break under snow on Camano Island.

I have many bamboos upsizing, getting over 10ft this year, and atrovaginata is up past 13ft this year. It still managed to have snow breakage with 5-6ft tall culms from last year so now with even larger culms, I think breakage is even more likely.

At 1 inch+ culms, they really can't be tied to the ground since they are already kind of stiff at the base so probably the best option is to tie the culms together, and wrap up the entire clump of canes so that the snow can't take down all of them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Some of my boos when they were still shooting