Bambusa space requirements

[BeyondTheGarden]

It's getting warm and I can't keep my shovel out of the ground.  How much space would you allot for Bambusa oldhamii, B malingensis "seabreeze", and Alphonse Karr?  Is there a kind of max size their footprints get to, or do they expand indeterminately?   Everyone is always complaining about running bamboo and justly so especially in the SE US.  But I can't imagine that clumpers would be much easier to reduce, only that you'd have to do so less frequently. 

B oldhamii is probably not hardy here; I have it planted already, up against the brick/masonry foundation of my house.  I anticipate it will die to the ground each year (and maybe not even come back).  

The others will be planted out in the yard I think, which frankly they don't have as much real estate as I should probably give them.  I wish I could plant them in shade but everything I read online says sun. 

[redbeard917]

Are you going to plant them near one another? I would be curious to know what happens when one clump bumps into another. I wish I had a photo of my Alphonse Karr handy, but I am out of town at the moment (I'm in essentially the same climate zone as you, just the north Florida version). It must be at least 6' wide at the base and so massive it's actually causing a nearby live oak to grow up and around it. 

[BeyondTheGarden]

9 hours ago, redbeard917 said:

Are you going to plant them near one another? I would be curious to know what happens when one clump bumps into another. I wish I had a photo of my Alphonse Karr handy, but I am out of town at the moment (I'm in essentially the same climate zone as you, just the north Florida version). It must be at least 6' wide at the base and so massive it's actually causing a nearby live oak to grow up and around it. 

Not side by side, but I am still undecided as to their final siting.  I would like to see your clump if you are able and willing at some point. 

How long has it taken to reach the 6' of span?  I am starting with some surprisingly robust 1-gal plants that I got off ebay out of Florida, near Gainesville. 

[Scott W]

Your bamboo should start producing mature size culms for that species in 7-10 years.

With that, each will continue to grow outward in an attempt to establish a forest.  This can be kept in check by thinning the older inner culms as well as removing the ones that grow up on the outer edge of the clump.

My recommendation for planting if it is done as a row and not open, individual specimens is to plant them no closer than 8 feet apart, as within 3 to 4 years that gap will disapper....

Overall I have eight varities of clumping bamboo.

Bambusa Textilis gracilis 

Bambusa pervariabilis viridistriata

Dendrocalamus validus

[Swolte]

Yes, your options for clumpers are limited by your winters. I have several clumpers (no runners... yet) but I have no big issues with maintenance thus far. The winters act like a check on them as most of my '8b zoned' bamboo dies back to the ground. Unless you pamper them with great soil and water (which I don't), they tend to expand at a glacial pace. In terms of growth, much easier to maintain than most common garden plants. In the worst case, like Scott said, you can trim them to constrain size.
:)

[Merlyn]

In a hot swamp like Orlando, Seabreeze grows extremely fast.  Mine went from 1 culm to 50+ in I think 3 years.  The monster clump at Leu Gardens is easily 30-50 feet in diameter at ground level.  I ripped mine out before it go out of hand.  I would guess, like Scott said, that cold winters will knock it back and limit the growth rate.

I haven't tried Oldhamii or Alphonse Karr, but I would guess Multiplex is easier to control.  I have a couple of other Multiplex I am trying out.  Generally they are fairly tight clumpers, and I think Alphonse Karr is about 20ft tall and 1 inch diameter.  That's a lot easier to prune than the big Maligensis or Oldhamii types.