I had written off bamboo, but I'm considering it again en lieu of installing motorized drop down privacy screens on my patio cover that I have been quoted from $3.5K to $7K to install. For much less than $3K should I be able to put some kind of containers against approximately 30 ft of fence pictured at the beginning of this thread that will allow me to plant super-fast growing running bamboo, while also making it physically impossible for them to get out of control? I would like something that will be low maintenance and will grow to a height of 15 feet or more and be thick enough to block the view down into my patio from the neighbor's upstairs window within a short period of time. I need something that grows pretty much straight up without much of of it hanging down or sticking out into the limited space of the patio. Can they be planted in the largest containers to start or do they have to be started in small containers and repeatedly transferred to larger and larger containers as they grow larger? I'm thinking of getting beds raised at least 3 feet so it will raise the planting level so that they have a head start to reaching the height required over the 6 ft fence required for the privacy screen effect. Container This will be in the Sacramento, California area.

OK, first of all, on the plant you just bought, do you see a 1 segment culm in that pot laying on its side? If so, that is how they started that plant. Before I start, let me explain one reason why some bamboo is expensive. Some of the Bambusa species propagate easily by cuttings and some do not. Some need special combinations of root chemicals to make them root. If you look through some price lists, you will see that Bambusa pervariabilis viridistriata is more expensive than Bambusa eutuldoides Viridi-vittata and that is because people are having a problem producing them in mass by stem cuttings and have to split them up. So, keep in mind that all of these might not start from cuttings, BUT ventricosa and oldhamii both start easily by cuttings. Many people can do a cutting with 1 segment but an old man 20 years ago who was very good with bamboo told me how to do it and it has been better for me to do it this way. You take a full sized culm and cut it off at ground level. The bottom part will start a new plant, so you won't lose anything in the long run. The top part of the culm, may not have enough hollow area in it to root in, so I only use the bottom part that is more hollow. You start by cutting the culm just below the node. Then on the next cut you go past the next node up and make the cut just below the second node. So, what you have is at the bottom there is a node and this is where your roots will come from. Then you have a complete section that is intact. Above that node you have more or less, a vase that is the full length between nodes. Just above that is the other node that starts your next cutting. Can you picture what I am trying to describe? OK, so this is why this works so well. You fill the top part of the cutting with water and this will seep through the top node of the cutting and go into the intact section and will feed and moisten the node where the roots will come from. Because the lower section never gets dried out by being exposed this will increase your success as opposed to the 1 node cutting that can get dried out if you forget to put more water in the "vase". If you put cuttings in a mist bed with a timer, you can get away with a 1 node cutting, but the average hobbiest doesn't have a setup like that so the 2 node cutting works a lot better. Keeping them in shade and giving them lots of water will help increase the number of cuttings that work. All the cuttings might not work, but this should do just fine. You could probably use a rooting hormone on the bottom part, especially if you use one of the liquid types of rooting hormones, but I have never needed that on the types I have done it on. They take several months and it is always best to do it when it is warm, like now is a good time.

If you are considering Prunus, then I'd focus my attention on a native species, Prunus caroliniana, Carolina cherry laurel. This can grow to a considerable size (much more tree-like than shrubby) but dwarf cultivars are available. I'd also consider Japanese aucuba, Aucuba japonica. Will grow in almost complete shade, very drought tolerant once established and grows rapidly. Other choices would be some of the hollies - Ilex opaca, glabra or crenata - all quite shade tolerant but slow growers. Also Leucothoe fontanesiana (also a native), Pieris japonica, Viburnum davidii, Eleaegnus pungens or one of the taller Sarcococca species. Nandina domestica and mahonia are also possibilities but both have invasive tendencies in your neck of the woods. My second suggestion is to consider a mix of suitable evergreen shrubs. A single species planting invites more disease and pest issues than does a diversified planting and diversification encourages wildlife and offers more visual interest. Wouldn't hurt to throw a few deciduous shade shrubs into the mix also - they will help with the screening (at least during the growing season) and typically offer showier flowering and often fall color as well. And there are LOTS to choose from - Itea, Clethra, Fothergilla, Disanthus, Callicarpa, Kerria, shrub dogwoods, more viburnums, hydrangeas.....etc., etc. btw, plants really do not help with muffling road noise - you need either a significant distance or a solid surface (solid wall or fence) to really accomplish that feat.

The plants typically used for screening - trees (often evergreen) and large shrubs - never really stop growing. And fast growing trees never really stop growing rather rapidly :-) So that 6-8 footer at the nursery could eventually be 35' or more in height and almost as wide. IOW, they get BIG!! In fact, the only difference between a "dwarf" conifer and a regular sized one is rate of growth.........if conditions are right, eventually that dwarf could become much larger than what is typical on the tags and in literature. For example. it is not unusual to see a dwarf Alberta spruce, normally a tiny little thing around a foot or so tall at the nursery, grow to be 12-15' tall in time and with a significant spread. Also, many fast growing trees display unfavorable growth characteristics like weak wood, invasive root systems and malformed branch angles that shorten their lifespans and create garden liabilities. This is a pretty well recognized phenomenon and I'm pretty sure that was what was meant by being "garden gorillas"! btw, there are also very cold hardy forms of clumping bamboo - any of the Fargesia species - that can achieve significant height yet do not spread aggressively. They are more like very large ornamental grasses with a slowly enlarging base and require no root barrier or rhizome control :-)