Email Garden@leereich.com. He is the master garden writer and has a stand of bamboo in zone 5 New York, 90 miles north of NYC.

Why do you want to grow this very invasive plant? Just curious.

He must live near where I am then. I am 2 hours north of NYC.

1) I always had bamboo and I keep in controlled by cutting it back. I use the stems as stakes in my garden and need a lot of them (a few hundred). They actually have many many uses.

2) If it is the right varieties the new shoots are great to eat, I grew a type of black bamboo when I was living in Japan for this purpose. This helps control the runners as well.

3) The leaves make great mulch for the garden and to protect strawberries and raspberries, etc.

4) They make a great wind block / privacy screen.

Thanks for giving me his contact but do you think it is ok that I drop him an email without him knowing who I am or how I got his email?

Yes. He writes a gardening column in the Ulster Publishing newspapers up here, and gives his email address for questions. He also writes for major magazines. I've been to his "farmden" as he calls it. I've seen his bamboo. He also has a blog which would probably answer your question if you type in "bamboo" in the search. Enjoy! He's a great writer. I get his weekly blog emails.

Www.leereich.com

The most cold hardy bamboos tend to be clumping bamboos so not at all a "very invasive plant"!! Clumping bamboos are no more invasive than any common ornamental grass! Most of the Fargesia species will tolerate zone 5 but you may get some winter die back early in their lives and I doubt they will be fully evergreen for you.

Gardengal, I disagree. It's a spreader here, beyond what ornamental grass does. Come see!

Are you sure that's what you have?? Fargesia here does expand but it does NOT run.....there's a big difference. Clumping bamboos do increase their girth over time but do not send out culms at any significant distance from the mother plant. And any bamboo grows like crazy in my very mild climate so I am extremely aware of their growth habits, as it pertains to my business.

I have no issues with any Fargesia species spreading too aggressively!! btw, bamboo IS an ornamental grass....just a very large growing one :-))

Susan needs to identify which specific bamboo(s) she is talking about. No Fargesia is "very invasive".

I believe that is exactly what I said.

Yep, I have fargesia rufa too and it has grown significantly since 2.5 yrs ago as a 1 1/4 inch pot to about 3 1/2 to 4 feet and 2 foot width. I would NEVER say it has spread though.

Wow. SOME of you live in a completely different climate and are extremely nitpicky about putting people down! Do I have to go take pictures of the two places I know where the bamboo has spread invasively???

Jeepers. This is zone 5 New York, not zone 8. If you have a recommendation for cold hardy, non-invasive bamboo for the original poster, then say it without all the snooty, uppity, holier than thou language.

Jeez.

With regards to the topic at hand, it doesn't make any difference where one is located. Fargesia species are NOT invasive......no clumping bamboos are considered invasive. It is just a matter of knowing the plants and their habits well.

And yes, maybe it is a case of you taking photos of the "invasive" bamboo so we can confirm that it is not Fargesia. It is by far the most frequently recommended cold hardy, clumping/non-invasive bamboo species. From the ABS: Non-invasive cold hardy clumping bamboo.

btw, if the bamboo was inclined to run or be invasive, it would be far more likely to do so in a very mild winter zone like mine than in a much colder z5.

I answered the OP's question by sending him to a local expert up here, Lee Reich, who grows bamboo and would have the answers.

Maybe your argument is about the difference between spreading and invasive. In that case, a nicer way of talking to me would be better. You seem to need to always start an argument, gardengal. Learn how to educate politely.

"You seem to need to always start an argument, gardengal. Learn how to educate politely."

LOL!! I have been a very active participant on these forums for a very long time and I have never been accused of starting an argument, although I am not at all inclined to backdown from one started with me. I know what I know and I am quite secure in that knowledge. Rather, YOU seem to have issues with some of my comments so I have to wonder where the "problem" really lies.

If you go back and read my comment, I asked for your clarification of what type of bamboo you were growing that you found to be invasive. As yet, you have not confirmed that we are talking about the same bamboo genus, yet you insist that it is invasive. That appears to me to be far more argumentative than just answering the question..........

As an innocent bystander?, the fight in this thread seems to originate with Susan. Just my two cents.

I am not fighting at all but thanks though, I am not offended by her comment.

Best to just ignore the trolls or just reply with kind waves and smiles

I did absolutely nothing wrong. Some people are forum bullies out to make others look stupid.

Gregory, email Lee Reich and see what he has to say about what bamboo is hardy here. Good luck!

I don't know about Zone 5 and bamboo performance of either runners or clumpers. I have both invasive runners (P. aurea, nigra, vivax, viridis and Pseudosasa japonica), and a clumping Fargesia in NJ/Zone 7. My runners are limited naturally (they aren't able to "run" into the adjacent dark woods, or flooded wetlands, or on ground covered with cement. Fargesia rufa (green panda bamboo) is my reliant clumper. It is not invasive in the least and is quite heat, humidity, and drought tolerant for a "mountain" bamboo. We LOVE IT! It has formed a tight, wall about 10 feet tall and is lush year round. However, at least in zone 7, Fargesia needs some shading from the hottest sun (in both summer and winter).