I purchased moso (1 gallon)from ebayer "Hortus" heres a pic: $22 shipped :-D

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and this one is baby buddha from gardenmagik:
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The only ones I have bought from and never had a problem with are:

philinshelton
bamboobuddy
booo4u
bambooheadquarters Also, the folks down at tropicalbamboo.com are now selling under the name siteminders, so I'm sure you could buy from them with no problems.

Hello CJ, I bought the same Moso bamboo from the same seller, their bamboos are all very healthy and very well pack with a box, super fast shipping, I paid 12.95 + shipping for that one,

there is an old lady from TX is selling bamboo I have bought from her a few times, first time she sent 3 bunch of bamboos they were all healthy I will say 2 one gallon plant and 1 one gallon plant for $26 + $8 shipping... I also bought some roots from her and nothing yet her name is Kaddidle2005, she has two auctions for bamboos going on now... funny old lady,

there is one person selling ARUNDINARIA GIGANTEA BAMBOO Roots the name is jphclerk, we bought 6 roots from them and they sent 8 roots and after 3 months, 5 roots came up now about 6" and looking healthy, we paid 18 bucks buy it now with $6 shipping... this person has item for sell as now...

there is one person who is selling roots the ad will say they are selling at least one foot of roots, I won one lot for about 3 bucks with $5 shipping, after 3 months nothing happen, I dug up the roots and they all rotted, so I will not buy from again...

There is this person the nick is bluewater claim he's selling Phyllostachys aurea speciment plant starting bid 3.75 and 10.25 shipping fancy ad, when the SPECIMENT plant came, it only has ONE stem half dead and NO rootball at all ( some small hairly roots) after 14 bucks, we are not so sure this one will survive... this person has one plant for sell as of now... it took TWO full week for him to mail after payment...

Bamboobuddy is by far the best seller, I bought a 1G black bamboo from him, it took two weeks also, but the bamboo is so healthy and very smart package, he puts one thick bamboo pole a little longer than the plant and wrap the plant stems with the pole, and wrap the rootball, the palnt came very healthy and secured! I paid $18 plus $8 shipping, well worth it... you can make deals with him, just email him and tell him what you need, he will tell you what he will charge you, VERY reasonable! I just bought one 5G Yellow Groove, one 5G Giant Vivax, one 1G Nigra Heron, one 1G TORTOISE SHELL and he throw in a 1G Janpanes arrow bamboo 5 plants for $99! free shipping! I will let you guys know how they look when he mail these to me next week... he now has a lot of bamboos for sale... 5G Yellow Groove buy it now for 39 bucks, 5G Vivax for 39 bucks free shipping, and has one gallon plants for sale for $29 buy it now free shipping... the best buy and the quality is by far the best...

and last of all, you guys follow this forum, all should know Fred is the man :) he will help you any way he can to help you get some reasonable price bamboos...

Hope this can help

Great references. I wish everyone would include that info whenever they refer to someone on eBay. Too many tempting auctions now.

Hello_C_J_here is that Hortus119?

betweenbrain- yes it is Hortus119 they have 3 small Giant Black Timor Bamboo seedings for sell now :)

I am trying to upload some pictures I bought from Ebay sellers ... most of them are looking good.

Hi, sorry for the late reply...rogertse beat me to it! :-D

I also bought from the old lady in Texas (Kaddidle2005) with great results. 4 plants total... 3 are doing great... 1 dropped all leaves but still remains solid so I'm hoping it will survive. All in all... super deal. $35 shipped!
Take care
CJ

Can we have the genders and ages of all the sellers please? :/

Great list--do keep it up. But remember please that "old lady" isn't a nice way to refer to someone!

Fori... she introduced herself as "The old lady" when I first started chatting over emails about the Boo she had. It wasnt an attempt to degrade her. Sorry if you took offence to that.
CJ

Fori,
I don't really understand the question. If they are perceived as a good seller who cares. Also, the "old lady" comment was being generous.... if you try to read that sellers auctions then you may add a few other adjectives. Feedback is the key, not sanity (or gender or age). not tryn to be meen just kaddidlin round here in pittsburgh...

Sorry guys--I didn't realize she'd labelled herself such. And I should have realized y'all are far too classy to describe someone like that on your own. Bad me!

Thanks for the list. It will be most helpful to those of us just starting out.
At least now I will feel a little safer bidding with someone that has been bamboo forum approved.

In fact I just placed a bid with bamboo buddy for a Phyllostachys nigra punctata. Hope I get it!

Philinshelton is #1 in my book! I got a one gallon and a three gallon F. rufa and a one gallon P. nuda from him. He is quick to warn about certain varieties not being as cold hardy as touted. He gives advice and recommends buying one larger plant and splitting rather than spending lots on small plants. The plants came fast and are gorgeous.

agm40 sells nicely packaged rhizomes. To early for me to tell if their doing anything though. They seemed healthy with highly professional packaging and info.

I don't remember which person sold me my first bamboo, but it was a Moso and in BIG BOLD PRINT said it would do just fine in zone 5. Later learned that it probably won't. Oh well. Lesson here is to read up on any boo and don't just believe them!

I agree that philinshelton is a good seller.

I had a small problem with bamboobuddy shipping distichus bare-root, but if there is a problem, he'll fix it.

every once in a while you'll get a bad plant no matter who's sending it. sometimes you may have to wait a little longer for it to establish itself. take pictures of how it arrives before and after it is planted.

in my case I had a 2 gallon that had no rhizome structure whatsoever. the thing was basically terminal (no buds). after months of no new growth, I dug it up and checked it out. the seller(non-ebay) corrected the problem after I pointed this out.

what kind of boo did you buy from the lady in texas i quick finger bid on some one of her auctions then realized I didnt know if my area can even support it .

Yello groove... she sent several 4 footers in a large, long triangular shaped box. She has several other varieties that she unsure of. Remeble Bory and robert young but I'm not certain. The pics she has on the auctions arent too clear.
CJ

Meat-

Even the lady herself does not know what kind of bamboo she's selling, she claims the bamboo will grow to about 20' tall and up to 5" in diameter, I am not so sure about that! but she did send me a culm that's over inch and half diameter ( it died because it had no root ball came with it )

I can share the info with you about this lady in TX, she calls these bamboos TX bamboo, she found the grove of the bamboo where near her house by the lake and she went and dug up the plants and sells them on Ebay... but she did start from the little ones in her yard, we have bought bamboos from her twice, the first time we won 3 bunches of bamboos from her, and she sent 1 about one foot tall one about 3' and one with small culms about 5' tall, the plants came very healthy, over the last 3 months, the one foot tall plant grew to about the two gallon size of nursery bamboos, very bushy and sending shoots left and right, I had to replant it to about 30 feets away from others... I am not a bamboo expert, but I can tell you it will grow larger than 2" diameter! I am sure it will survive the z6 weather!

Update on Bamboobuddy

I paid him on Sept 14th, he said he will mail them via UPS next week ( last week ) the bamboos are still NOT here yet! I am not so sure about this seller any more, but I found a much better mail order place, you guys can try to call bamboopalntation.com and ask for Jim, he will give you a very good price, and he charges 20 bucks shipping for 5 bamboos plants all two gallon size, I ordered 5 plants from him last Wed, he was going to mail the same day, but I told him to mail today! so, I am sure these bunch of bamboos will come before the bamboobuddy!

I will keep you inform when all these bamboos come!

Oh, Fred, the Koi has put out new leaves on all branches! and you won't believe how healthy the Madake looks! I can't wait till next spring comes! Thank you again!

Roger

PS you are so right Gil, the wonderful thing about bamboo and gardening is be able to meet wonderful people like you ! to those who answered my emails about bamboos :) like Brad, Gil, Fred, and Paul, It has been a pleasure meeting you guys! Thank you!

I took a couple of Hort classes with Philinshelton and I can verify he is a class act all the way around.

roger-
You should be ok with bamboobuddy. He's been around on eBay for several years and I got a couple of things from him. He was a little slow, but he did come through, and the plants were healthy and well-packaged. He also promptly answered a couple of followup emails from me.
As for Phil_in_Shelton, I can absolutely recommend him. I live about an hour's drive from his place and visited him a month or two ago. I really enjoyed talking with him, and he let me chew up an hour-and-a-half of his Sunday afternoon. He's a very knowledgeable and generous guy, and he grows beautiful bamboo.

I thought I read somewhere on one of the "old lady's" posts that someone IDed the unknown bamboo as S. fastuosa.
don't hold me to it though....
Rick

I have bought from 4 ebay sellers including philinshelton, bamboobuddy , booo4U and they all promised to me they will be shipping my boo with the soil or at least some soil included. Philinshelton was the only one that came through as promised with no BS. He started shipping with 6x6" boxes to ship the entire one gallon of soil instead of the way it was done before where it was wrapped in a ball of wet newspaper. His plants are priced better than other sellers and very strong. what else is there.oh ya they came two days after I paid him.

well I wont two plants form the lady in texas so I shall have input on her this week I also have som ph. nigra coming i will leave input on that and the seller as well.

I can only echo what kudzu9 has said about Phil_in_Shelton. I live a little closer, and have visited Phil a few times. Each time he was very generous with his knowledge and plant selection.

As they say @ EBay - A+ + +

I got the plants from the texas lady they were 4 foot tall plants rolled up to fit in an 10"x10" box with nearly no rootball at all. The culms were broken and the plant was dry as a bone. I trimmed off the culms and put the tiny root ball in the ground we shall see what happens. She is supossed to be sending me another plant.

Meat-
I'm sorry to hear about the condition of those plants. It sounds like she is not very knowledgeable about what constitutes a viable bamboo division, or how to ship it. Keep it moist and see what happens. If it lives, you might not see much happening until next summer.

Kudos to Philinshelton: had a similar experience as Wildcat Jake: very well packed, shipped on Sat from WA and arrived on my doorstep Monday @ noon in NY. Full plants and not a speck of dirt spillage either. After I emailed him to explain that they had arrived, he called to follow up and discuss location and planting method. Really recommended.

I got my ph. aurea from bamboo buddy it was very nicely packed however every bit of foliage on it was dark brown and fell off. I did however expect this so it was no suprise . took a week to get it from order date so looks like hes shipping pretty well now.

Just bought one from Ebay seller "turbulentbreeze" wow! Tall plant, leaves not stressed, huge rootball! Great plant. Her feedback for the bamboo lately is great so all her to the list!

Philinshelton is tops! the store name is Halfside Bamboo. He charges actual shipping and all bamboo is potted. easy transplant, and the fasted shipping on ebay. plants are green and healthy. P.s. I'm not related, but I know it sounds like it.