I have a couple of beds that are surrounded by rhizome barriers. Right now there is one species in each one, but I would like to change things up a little. One irregularly shaped bed, maybe fifteen-twenty feet on a side, is all Phyllostachys aurea (aka Golden or Fishpole) that is about fifteen-twenty years old. I would like to rip up at least half of this, and add a couple other species: Phyllostachys bambusoides "Castillion," Phyllostachys bambusoides "Allgold," and maybe some Semiarundinaria yashadake 'Kimmei'

Can I successfully balance the species with careful watering, or is the Golden bamboo going to take over again? The new plants are currently living in plastic garbage cans, and are about two years old.

You have the saw. You can do whatever you want. I have a similar mixed bed but it's not in the saw stage yet.

cbm-
If you have several species in one area, they will intermix, and send up culms wherever they want. One species may not necessarily dominate, but the whole area will be a real hodgepodge in 5 years. When you have a culm come up, you may not be able to immediately identify which species it is until later, and removing it may be complicated by all the crisscrossing of the rhizomes. If you want to keep this manageable, subdivide the area with more barrier.

It is true you can have trouble balancing the mix if you can't identify the shoots. In my intermixes, I used plants that have their own distinct shoot. For example, any of the blacks will have a similar shoot, different from Madake, Robert Young, etc.

the contrasting leaves make it much more interesting to look at if you are willing to keep an eye on where they are running to

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-alan in seattle
zone8

Thanks for the advice.