Solved Bamboo identification

Hi there everyone!

Please could somebody tell me if this is a clumping or running bamboo? It's only just been planted.

Thank you!

 

This might help…

How to identify clumping bamboo? » BAMBOO PLANTS UK

 

To me it looks like Phyllostachys nigra (better quality photographs would help).
Phyllostachys nigra is more of a clumping than running variety.
It can depend on growing conditions and climate as to whether a bamboo tends to clump or run.
So that's soil fertility, moisture levels; good growing conditions can make bamboos run more.
In your case can you ask whoever planted it for the variety?
Being penned in by those slabs will discourage running, bamboo runners tend to live near the surface.

 

@NigelJ we grow quite a few bamboos of both types and we agree with you that it really does depend on the conditions as to what the bamboo will do. We have some near huge slabs and they often go underneath and move quite a way away and then pop up where we don't want them. We have to be very vigilant to keep on top of their spread.

 

That looks like Phyllostachys nigra to me too. It is a running bamboo but I grow several varieties of these and they are well behaved and not invasive in my shallow, sandy soil. They send out runners occasionally but I keep a close eye on them and remove them as soon as I see them, often by just pulling them up and cutting them off with secateurs. Although Phyllostachys varieties are running bamboos, they can behave like clumping bamboos in cooler climates and less favourable soils and conditions.

Clumping bamboos like Fargesia varieties don’t send out runners, they just expand outwards like most grasses.

If you have fertile, moist soil, I think you’ll need to incorporate a barrier around your bamboo to stop it running. It looks as if it is right next to your fence and may surprise your neighbour once it gets fully established. If your soil is poor like mine, it may be just a case of keeping an eye on it to see how it behaves and maintain it accordingly.

 

I think it may be the neighbour’s bamboo?

 

I thought that after posting my reply @Panda2. A neighbourhood watch alert .

 

If, as stated in the first post, it's only just been planted it's unlikely to have moved from the neighbours side of the fence to the OPs side in a matter of weeks.

 

It looks like it desperately needs a good watering.

 

I was thinking the neighbour had just planted it and @Saxon Peacock was enquiring whether it could be a problem in the future.
Bit confusing as in pic 1 it on the arrisrail side of the fence and in last pic it's on the boarded side.
Must be in corner?? Perhaps.

 

I don't trust any bamboo here. The so called clumping ones can still spread to become very, very large. Our conditions suit them too well.
I agree that it's quite hard to tell from the photos what the actual scenario is.
Maybe we need more info from @Saxon Peacock . If it's just been planted, it's very large, and may not do well anyway.

 

You could get some pandas and create a nice jungle there @fairygirl .

 

It's why I won't have them in a garden now @Plantminded, but I see them when I'm out and about in various gardens, and the idiot across the back from me [who thinks he's Monty Don and Percy Thrower combined] has a run of them in a raised bed.
If they ever have ideas about doing a 'Queen' and wanting to break free......

Maybe a panda or 2 would work well there.

 

We have a few houses I pass with rampant bamboo, popping out through walls or invading the local gardens, despite us being in a part of the country with much drier conditions and generally poorer soils. I think that it's the length of time and maintenance that is the problem. If it's planted and abandoned then it will likely become a brute but if it's carefully maintained it may be absolutely fine. Obviously species is important as to how far it may run but even the clumping forms can take over eventually.
I have fargesia rufa in the ground but I've moved it a couple of times and it's been very compliant. I do have phyllostachys nigra and aurea but I keep them is massive above ground planters on a concrete base because I don't ever want to have to dig them out if I fancy a change.

 

I have a clumping bamboo but unfortunately it sneaks under the fence to my neighbours excessively overgrown garden. They do nothing then after about a year complain to me about it. I wish I had never planted it now, but it has been well behaved for ten years or so until the last couple of years.

It is right behind my pond so I can't even get it out.