A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum Bamboo in Missouri?

Hi everyone. I live in Missouri, just south of St. Louis. I have seen bamboo growning near by, and am wondering where I can get some, and what variety is hardy in our area. I want something FAST growing and spreading. Our neighbors decided to bulldoze all of the trees behind and beside their house.. BOOOOOOO!!!!!! I am so upset, because there was nothing I could do. It is their property! But, now, they've opened a big clearing and the view from my once secluded side yard is the back of their unkept yard and dirty garage!!! I'm so frustrated, can you tell? Please help with info on Bamboo or other VERY fast growing/spreading trees.

Thanks in advance!

Are you SURE you want Bamboo? It can be very, very invasive and hard to get rid of...


Merme

I don't know much about bamboo, but I do know there is a type which is less invasive, in that it doesn't send runners a long way underground. I think it's called clumping bamboo.

are you sure you do not just want to put up a 6 or 8 ft privacy fence along that side of the house??/ then you could pick & choose what kind of plants, bushes, trees that you would like to "decorate" the area with----


or you could always put up a line of evergreen trees of some type----
just remember how big they will be one day as you are planting them.


Nutteral oaks grow fast----but I myself have not decided if they would grow in our area--but it is a thought.

all good thoughts. clumping bamboo is how you want to go if you decide that is what you want. but, i would investigate all the options. bamboo is very hard to "undo"

nandina is a type of bamboo that we have in our yard and it spreads like crazy and there's no getting rid of it. It's not tall enough for a barrier though. When our neighbors did the same as yours we put up a privacy fence.

Ask at Lowe's or a local nursery.

Hey Bamboo Missouri, bought some Rubrio out of a place called Lewis bamboo. It seems to be growing good. Takes a good 6 months to see this stuff take off. We bought it to encase a long dusty road near a friends property. Lewis has all kinds of boo, we got the kind recommended for zone 5 but could probably do a zone 6 or 7. My buddy bought some gigantic grey recently but believe it will take off in 6 months to a year. Go to Lewis Bamboo to see what they have. There are two kinds of bamboo. One is the spreading type and the other is a clumping type. We have the spreading kind which spreads through rhizomes just like grasses do. Excited about the potential for Bamboo in Missouri.

Hello. Did you solve your bamboo need? fyi, there is a stand near me in Manchester in a commons area that I have been harvesting, and you could probably get as many plants as you would like. They grow to about 30 feet. I now own Bamboo for Gardens by Ted Meredith, and could loan it to you, but maybe you can borrow a copy from a public library. John Bell

Hi St.Louis4SeasonGardener,

I would be very interested in the stand you are referring to in Manchester. I live in Ballwin and plan on planting bamboo this spring. I have the rhizome barrier ordered and was considering ordering online. Can you let me know where in Manchester please? I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

Sure hope the bamboo isn't what we have here in Pa.
Planted it to keep noise an dirt from the railroads.. Results it cannot be killed.
Nephew has it in the yard an it grows a foot a week. He tried everything to kill it. No results yet.

Sis neighbor had it too an we watched it grow like crazy.. No cure once it sets in.
Good luck an hope it doesn't act like that one.

Down near my father's property a guy planted a 5 acre field with it--and yes it grew like wild fire---I don't know how he harvested it, but he did, and it is now gone.

I was planning on planting yellow groove bamboo while using a rhizome barrier and a pruning trench. If maintained Im hoping it doesn't get out of control.

sounds like you have done your reasearch & have it in hand..Do keep us informed.

LOL

Hello!
I'm in Farmington, MO (we actually used to live in Ballwin/Chesterfield) and we have bamboo on our property down here if you want a few starter plants. It's considered the running type...but I like the look of it vs the clumping. We call it our bamboo forest. It grows somewhat fast, but nothing crazy like everyone says. Maybe it's the species I have. Plus we cut down a little bit throughout the year for garden trellises, handmade crafts and such. We also have a lot of clay soil down here...so that may slower the spreading. I'm not sure. Just wanted to offer it up if you still need it. You are more than welcome to some. :)
Jess