Tropicalesque bamboo/privacy hedge recommendations for 9a

[Keys6505]

I have a fence line on my property that is lined with mature (20' +/-) oleander.  The privacy is great but I'm not a fan of the Oleander due to the amount of leaves that they drop and the fact that if you trim them up they're overgrown again in a month.  I have run out of room on the rest of my property for any more palm trees so I now have the Oleander in my crosshairs but I am hesitant because i really don't want to sacrifice the privacy for the next 5 years until whatever I replace them with matures.  The sun basically travels directly over the line of Oleander, if not slightly behind them, so I can't see any real way to trim them to allow enough sun to get to an palms if I were to plant some in between.  This got me thinking about bamboo as a tropicalesque alternative whereas I could lose some oleander and keep the bamboo tight to the fence so I could put some palms in front.  I had some bad experience with some running type bamboo in my old house in NJ.  I had dug heavy duty 55 gallon drums with the bottoms cut out into the ground as a rhizome barrier and within 2 years the bamboo split the drums open and were everywhere.  Are there any easily controlled tropical looking clumping varieties than anyone could recommend that stay relatively narrow and columnar but are also dense with leaves for privacy?  As far as height goes the 20-ish feet I have now is perfect and would be preferred.  Any other privacy hedge recommendations that fit the bill are welcome as well.  Thanks!

[Chester B]

I can think of a couple of clumping bamboos that might work.  Fargesia robusta grows up to 15' and can easily be maintained to a narrow space, but I'm not sure if it's really all that tropical looking.  I find it does best in part shade, but part sun works too.

Have you looked at any of the Chusquea species?  Like Chusquea gigantea?  They are cental and south American bamboos that are clumping and look different than the Asian species.

This bamboo nursery is located near me.  I haven't bought anything from them so have no experience dealing with them, but their website has a ton of info.

http://bamboogarden.com/

 

[sgvcns]

If leaf drop is a worry for you have a long think about bamboo. They drop a lot of leaves.

You could trim the Oleander's lower branches to create space under to grow whatever. You should be able to trim these to allow some light in and gradually replace them as the new planting grows

Steve

[Xenon]

So many options!

Bambusa chungii 

Dendrocalamus minor 'Amoenus'

Bambusa eutuldoides 'Viridivittata'

 

I would go with the Dendrocalamus, it's good into the lower-mid 20s which you hardly ever reach in League City anyways. Big powdery ghost white culms and big tropical leaves, what's not to like??? The Bambusa chungii is almost as tropical looking with more blue toned culms and is slighty hardier (to about 20F). Viridivittata has striking lemon yellow culms. 

 

Edited September 22, 2020 by Xenon

[Kailua_Krish]

Bambusa multiplex was the best hedge bamboo in 9a for me.

I recommend against the dendrocalamus or the B. chungii for privacy. Both are beautiful bamboo but don't block as much at ground to eye level as they tend to have bare lower stems. Both make nice specimens though.

[Xenon]

4 hours ago, krishnaraoji88 said:

Bambusa multiplex was the best hedge bamboo in 9a for me.

I recommend against the dendrocalamus or the B. chungii for privacy. Both are beautiful bamboo but don't block as much at ground to eye level as they tend to have bare lower stems. Both make nice specimens though.

Yeah B. multiplex and B. textilis are the standard screening bamboos in the Houston Area. They don't look very "tropical" to my eyes though. B. textilis 'Gracilis' is the best in the group, with the weeping leaflets imo.

[Kailua_Krish]

9 hours ago, Xenon said:

Yeah B. multiplex and B. textilis are the standard screening bamboos in the Houston Area. They don't look very "tropical" to my eyes though. B. textilis 'Gracilis' is the best in the group, with the weeping leaflets imo.

Agree with everything you're saying except I like the "Kanapaha" variety the best!

[Merlyn]

I don't know your temperatures there, but there are some big-leaf bamboos that look much more tropical.  I'm growing Dendrocalamus Hamiltonii, Latiflorus, Maroochy, Maximuslamina here, and they are all BIG leaves.  Even the young shoots have leaves 4-5 inches wide and 10-12 inches long.  The above are supposed to be ok to upper 20s before burning badly.

Most big timber types like Chungii, Kanapaha, and others will tend to be branchless/leafless in the bottom 1/3.  So once they hit mature 30-40' height they'll be see-through for the bottom 10 feet.  That's not a good privacy fence.  Some that stay heavily branched down low are Bambusa Eutuldoides Viridi-Vittata (Asian Lemon) and B. Maligensis (Seabreeze).  Those are "medium-small" leaves but generally bigger leaves than the super-fine B. Textilis types.  Asian Lemon and Seabreeze are aggressive growers, after 6 months in the ground from a 3 gallon they are both 15-20 culms and getting up to 1" or larger diameter.

Bamboo will all drop lots of leaves though, it's great for self-mulching but not so great if you want everything pristinely clean near a pool or patio. 

If you want a tropical look a hedge of White Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia Nicolai) can create a dense wall in ~2 years.  But they burn some in the upper 20s and get torched by the 25-27F range.  If your temps are okay for that, they grow fast and dense and don't drop leaves.  I only have to prune my wall of birds once per year.

Another option is bananas, ones like Bordelon will create a giant-leaved display and are cold hardy enough to live in Louisiana.  I'm sure they'd be hardy in your area.  Here's a photo of a mature clump in my front yard on the left, with Ice Cream to the right of the Miata (20' further away) and Kandarian to the right side.  Bordelon is solid up to about 10' and peaks at about 12-14'.  The other photo is a sun-washed-out photo of a monster cluster of Ice Cream, the result of 10 months of untrimmed growth from a single plant: