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Please don't talk up planting bamboo. It is an invasive nightmare that has taken over many a US forest, not to mention countless backyards. English Ivy is another horrible offender. My brother's small backyard had so much bamboo taking over that the Atlanta Zoo would come and harvest some of it for the pandas! Their huge collecting barely made a dent, and the bamboo ruined the delicate ecosystem of the once-beautiful Beech forest and ravine beyond the yard.

Why couldn't you just remove the bamboo if it was a problem? I don't understand.

With English ivy and with running bamboo, the problem is a root system that spreads voraciously and pops up plants where you don't expect them.

This article says there's non-invasive bamboo with clumping root systems. Can someone who gardens take a look and see if it's plausible?

Monkeyme, my situation might help explain. I spent almost $5,000 getting rid of bamboo in my backyard (about a 10' x 25' area) when we first bought out house. This included -- a few bucks spent on our own various saws & choppers and chemicals as we tried to remove it ourselves -- then, the rest on hiring a landscaper with 8 men and numerous machines to get rid of it for good and restore the displaced dirt. Bamboo is extremely hardy -- you can chop down all of the stalks and it will still send up new shoots -- it also spreads like crazy. Ours spread into a neighbor's yard -- and stalks came up through cracks in his concrete garage foundation, where there was no light or water. The roots are so strong that my landscaper actually flipped his excavating machine onto its side while trying to pull out the densest area of roots. This all started from one small bamboo plant that previous owners planted about 10 years prior. While I was going through my bamboo ordeal, a co-worker, who is a Vietnam Veteran, told me that they dropped bombs and the entire area and vegetation would be burned to the ground -- then they would fly by a week later and the bamboo would be three feet high already.

Be careful where you plant bamboo -- I would recommend only having it in containers.

Wow, I had no idea. Good to know, thanks!

It's gonna be the Kudzu of the 21st century here in America.

Sunspot, EXACTLY! I've known landscape architects who planted it in 2' deep fiberglass containers and it still spreads - it's unstoppable and spread very quickly - I've seen it get about 4' closer to the house per year, thick, dense, and out of control, decimating every other plant in its path. I would not even recommend planting it in containers.

Bamboo furniture and floors are gorgeous though - yea for those, nay for planting your own bamboo forest!

Japanese knotweed - just the same - say no more...

~~Alternate opinion~~

Bamboo can be a great plant. As with all plants, when planted in the wrong place, bamboo can be a problem. It thrives in moist areas. If you've got the running type rain>15"/year = problems. (That's a non-scientific estimate of rain.)

We've planted it in Las Cruces, NM and at our home in Colorado. The most rain we have ever gotten is about 20"/year. Our soil is also poor with a capital 'P'. The bamboo is planted in an amended area and really has no reason to search elsewhere.

Wende in Phoenix - The clumping varieties are quite well behaved. My parents have planted a few different ones in Illinois with no issues after 8 years.