Love the looks of bamboo, golden or otherwise. If I had room, I would have multiple stands of clumping bamboos. I do have one, Ladyfinger I think, that also turns a golden color, but only gets to about 15 ft tall and canes don't get more than 1/2 in. thick. But yeah, even a clumping bamboo, if there is nothing to hinder it, could eventually overtake an area as the clump keeps expanding. But they're a LOT easier to control than the runners.

Edit for correction: After getting home to look up what I had again, I believe it is the Golden Goddess variety, not Ladyfinger. When I purchased it, it did not come along with a Variety tag and I was torn on if it was Ladyfinger or Golden Goddess. It resembles both, but so far hasn't been thick enough to be Ladyfinger.

Thanks much, Michael. Most helpful. I did some more research after posting that and now I'm not sure if it was Bambusa or Phyllostachys I'd seen. If I told you where, it would make you laugh. Not sure if you're at all familiar with Fort Myers area, but just in a bunch of scrub and rampant vegetation along Summerlin Ave.-one of that city's main routes. It sort of sticks out from the other vegetation, has a very strong, golden hue, and I don't know, I guess I really like yellow stems and twigs on plants. Without a doubt, any bamboo is a plant which demands careful siting. And sure enough, some, like the Phyllostachys, are invasive in parts of the south. so there's that.

BTW, sorry for keeping on going back to FM area, but there's a state park/historical site there which is amazing on a number of levels, but if you walk into the woods there, you immediately come upon a large grove of the big, 5o-footers, Chinese bamboo I guess (Which doesn't tell you much) which is an amazing and eery scene, the big stems clanking against each other in the breeze. Most unusual. I'm going to look those varieties up. Thanks again bud.

+oM

What you need here in Florida would be a clumping bamboo, which would be in the genus Bambusa. Most are not child hardy less than 10F, so that is why you do not see them up north.

If you want a smaller one, I would go with a plant people have been growing for 100 years around here, Bambusa textiles Alphonse Karr. It maxes about 12 to 15 feet tall and the culms are only about 1/2 inch wide. It is also super cold hardy for Florida. It might even go into single digits, but it did just fine at 15F I had a few years ago.

There are a couple of somewhat new introductions from China that have variegated culms that take 12-13F, but are slightly larger. The botanical names are a bit hard to deal with, like Bambusa eutuldoides viridi vittata, but the common name in this case is Lemon Yellow. The culms get about an inch or so wide, but it gets more like 25 feet tall. Then the Sunburst gets 45 feet tall and the culms get almost 3 inches in diameter. All very nice golden stemmed clumpers.

Thanks much, Plantsman. Much, if not all I contribute in this forum is just daydreaming. I live in my namesake state and only get down to FL occasionally. Hey, a guy can dream.

BTW, the Naples Botanical Garden has what I thought was a knock-your-socks-off bamboo section. The black ones, my golden, variegated, they just go on and on. I'm not at all unaware of the hazards of working with rhizomatous species, bamboo or otherwise. Heck, we've got Japanese knotweed running wild up here! Location, location, location!

I'll check out those suggestions.

+oM

I heard the Brits came up with a way to take care of Japanese Knotweed. Move to a new house.

If you can grow any bamboo in your area, it would have to be a runner. If that worries you and don't mind working hard and a little expense, the runners don't go much deeper than a foot deep. Bamboo people sell these barriers made of of sheet metal or fiberglass, which I don't trust over time. But, if you dig down and pour a 4 inch wide barrier of concrete, you can free form the planter any shape you want and the runners won't go underneath. I actually angle the concrete inward so that when a runner hits the barrier, it automatically wants to run up.

Thanks PM56. It could happen, I suppose.

+oM