I want to thank david, who let me come out and dig numerous divisions from his grove. But, here is my question. He had a five year old grove of bissetti,spectabilis,and atrovaginata, surrounded by only a raised bed. The bed consisted of small retaining stones, one below ground and two above. Maybe a total of nine inches. A few stray rhizomes did escape into the yard, but mostly just agaisnt the stones. This grove was fifty feet long and 12 to 15 feet high,a mature grove. He did say that he does some yearly pruning, but thats it. I was some what surprised, so i think its possible that all the horror stories i've heard may be a little excessive. I do understand that without maintenance and upkeep it very possible for bamboo to get out of control, as with any plant . I think the bad rep comes from irresponsible owners. Any input appreciated.

Rhizome pruning is key -- a raised bed is no guarantee against rhizome escape! But other growers have said that raised beds with places for the rhizomes to squeeze through (like loose stone walls) are better than solid raised beds. If they're solid the rhizomes deflect downward and then into the surrounding ground.

With yearly rhizome pruning you'll never have an issue with most species. Some of them send rhizomes deeper than others though.

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Alan.
My blog: It's not work, it's gardening!

Your seeing a bamboo grove that has had proper yearly rhizome maintenance and thanks to that it is well behaved garden plant.

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M

Bamboo horror stories are not over-rated so much as tree stories are under-rated. The apathy exhibited toward accounts of trees falling, killing people, damaging houses, and disrupting electrical service is unbelievable. Wake up, friends.

Personally, I have a brand new chainsaw ready to go in my safe along with my six month supply of dehydrated food, potable water, and wind-up radio/dvd player. No tree is going to fall on me without a fight.

Well stated! I have had far more property damage from branches and trees falling on stuff than I have ever had from bamboo. Then again I don't ever recall the bamboo damaging anything.

From what I've seen, people do more damage reacting to what they think bamboo will do than what the bamboo will actually do. Then they blame the bamboo for the damage they themselves do.

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Southern Indiana. Theoretically the same climate as 'needmore' & 'Eastlandia'.
My Bamboo List.

"Take Dog apart. Disinfect. Reassemble."

While clearing away some bamboo, I steadily fed its branches into a wood chipper. As the flexible bamboo wrapped itself around the shredding mechanism, I began to feel heat blowing back as friction mounted. Finally upon sensing a burnt aroma, I killed the power.
Behold! A nest of thin bamboo branches firmly locked the rotating shredder in place, thwarting any attempt to restart the machine! The horror!

I tell you, bamboo is evil!

It's not a Triffid! I have dozens of different bamboos and my main problem with how they spread is that I can't get them to spread enough. Any of them. In fact I have some that are supposed to be shade loving that we put in an alder forest in the back of the property who grew not one inch larger rootball than the day I planted them 3 years ago.

The ones in full sun are at least starting to beef up a bit after 3 years but yeah I would firmly attribute any horror story you've heard to abject neglect.

I had one bamboo ever spread where I didn't want it to and it took about 2 minutes to take a shovel and cut the rhizome through the grass and pull it up.

People try to make out that they are sneaky and get away from you at almost any moment if you turn your back on them even for a day.

Japanese Knotweed actually does what people accuse Bamboo of doing if you want to see a *really* bad plant horror story look up the pictures of it growing through foundations in a season.

I don't think you'll hear too many horror stories about bamboo from up north because it seems like the soil has to warm up to a certain point to cause certain species of bamboo to tear up the ground and go 30ft in one season. I think sunlight and water is also a requirement as well. In an ideal climate with a super aggressive species, people actually have to put effort into containment. Here's a thread showing a perfect example. viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5455

If you come to my climate or north of the lake in Ontario, other parts of Canada, or the UK, you may never see a sprawling grove of bamboo that you can walk through as they tend to lack the will to grow without pampering. The only reason I can grow bamboo here and get them to survive is because of the great lakes. Otherwise, it would be a zone 4 here.

Given that Michigan is also up on the northern border of the U.S. probably also with cool summers, and very brutal winters, it may be more work to keep your bamboo alive than it is to contain it.

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