Such thing as a 'polite' bamboo?

By polite I mean relatively small footprint and easy to control XD I've heard bamboos have somewhat of a reputation for being thugs, in that if you stick them in a bed you'll never get them out again XDD

Also, it would be nice if there were any really pretty shade-tolerant varieties out there? I love the look of those green and yellow 'painted' bamboos, but I really don't have space for them - anything with a unique and interesting stem shape would be good, too. Is it possible to propagate those twisty 'lucky' bamboo you get at the supermarket? What species are those, anyway?

Sorry, fair few questions, I'm just curious XDD

 

There are "clumping" varieties, and "Runners". Clumping varieties will most likely not rampage about (they can, they tend not to, they should not be hard to control if they do ... famous last words!!)

You can put a root-barrier around them to contain them. Its not particularly cheap, but if, for example, you want a "hedge" of Bamboo you would be better off with a "runner" because it will densely fill the row where you want the hedge, and thus using a root barrier will give you that effect and stop it wandering into next door's garden - or even the next county!

You can grow them in a container - I bought one in an Oak half-barrel that the owner had had for 4 or 5 years. I expect he made a small profit selling it to me when it had got too big for the barrel, so in that sense it could be a cost-neutral plant

Phyllostachys have the stems with occasional thin stripes of alternative colour, they look lovely IMHO There is a black stemmed Phyllostachys nigra which is popular, and Phyllostachys Shanghai 3 has sticky-out joints which I think looks particularly Chinese. You need to get a decent sized one (in at least a 10 Litre pot) otherwise you will spend at least 2 years waiting for it to get from Child to Adult, and it will be small and weedy until then. Of course a 10L version is a lot more money that a 2L one ... if you aren't in a hurry then worth looking out for the Autumn sale at Amulree as in past years everything has been half price. Their normal price is around £35 for a 10L Bamboo.

There are also varieties that grow at odd angles. Apparently it is because the grow so fast - as the next "node" grows the left side grows faster than the right, causing it to grow at 45 degrees. The plant then detects that it is not growing upright so sorts itself out for the next "node". Result is that you get some stems with kinks in them, which adds to the interest

Dunno, quite possibly they are a variety not well suited to growing in the UK, and you would have a long wait, so apart from a fun-project there won't be any instant-gratification I'm afraid.

This site has useful pictures and information (although its in USA, so not suitable to actually buy from)
http://www.bamboogarden.com/

 

Fargesias are clumping bamboos that wont get out of hand.
There is a relatively new one called scabrida(sometimes known as Asian Wonder) which is really nice. Also rufa stays quite small too.

The Borindas are new in cultivation but some look to have great potential. With pale blueish culms.

But even some of the leptomorph (running) bamboos, they are easily controlled with either a rhizome barrier or simply chopping off runner if they spread too much

Jungle Giants and Rodings are 2 of the best sources of bamboos, particularly the rarer species.

 

Morning
I have both Fargesia nitida and Phyllostachys nigra growing in the garden, both are fairly well behaved the Phyllostachys shows more of a tendency to spread but is easily controlled. I thin them fairly hard every spring, to provide canes for sweet peas and other herbaceous climbers.
Nigel

 

I'm coming to the opinion that controlling a bamboo is better than root-barrier-ing it. However, that does require active management, and there are many other cases where that has been found not to work in practice - Leylandii hedge neighbour wars, for example ...

 

For what i paid for some of my bamboos, i really hope they spread a bit!
Well worth selling the bits i may have to take off!