Thanks for the suggestions! The primary issue with using clumpers for our given space is that it is extremely narrow, about 2 feet. I talked to the bamboo nursery, and two gardeners who work with bamboo, and all felt that runners would be better for the space since a clumper would end up damaging the surrounding patio space and retaining wall. All said the runners, although invasive, can be managed with the barrier and pruning. And they said the growth of the clumper mass wouldn't be as manageable. I'm not sure. I went into this thinking I would be looking at clumpers, and didn't expect to be looking at the runners. After some more research, I have crossed S. Fastuosa off the list. There were too many accounts of rhizomes traveling fairly deep. And Phyllostachys Vivax Aureocaulis is also crossed off the list. It's too big for the space. So, I'm left with Spectabilis. People say the rhizomes tend to stay shallow, so it'll be easier to manage. And it does away with worries about it going under the barrier. Another option is Japonica, which is also said to have shallow rhizome spread, but it's not as appealing to me as Spectabilis. Just need to make the final decision if I'm going to go ahead with the bamboo or take the easy way out and go with Dodonaea Purpurea, which won't give me the height I want for the hedge, but won't have the same invasiveness concerns. The bamboo is for a border that totals 85' by 2'. Given that the yard is mostly concrete, I'm not too worried about my water usage being excessive. For the past year, I haven't been using any water back there, since the border is just filled with dirt.

Hi folks, A friend's household (in SoCal zone 9b/sunset zone 18) has a 3 year old volunteer fig tree. It's about 10 feet tall, with a very nice upright structure they'd like to preserve, and has just produced its first ripe figs. As you might expect from a volunteer, the figs are terrible. They are quite large, resembling brown turkey figs in appearance and flavor (not good ones - the watery, flavorless ones you find in the grocery at times). They are sweet (as sweet as the grocery store brown turkey figs, anyway), but contain large branching structures full of nasty-tasting bitter pollen. I regret that I didn't take a photo, but they are very distinct from the female parts of the synconium. We're discussing the possibility of grafting this tree (not now - next year), and they say they would prefer to retain the upright shape and single trunk. I know people seem to prefer to propagate figs by rooting cuttings, but it would seem a shame to waste a 3 year old root system. I'm pretty new to grafting and have never grafted a mature tree before (so please forgive me if I get some terminology wrong). Do we have options that would allow us to preserve the tree's overall shape? Do we really need to chop the trunk off down low, or could we just cut off and graft all the scaffold branches? I know that if we try to go the latter route, we'll have a devil of a time with suckering, but if they prefer being really vigilant about removing suckers over risking loss of the structure they like, would this be an option for them? Would it create problems in terms of graft acceptance? I would appreciate any sage advice, as would my friend's household, who are understandably disappointed after watching the tree for two summers and netting it this year, and would love to be able to make lemonade (...fig-ade?) of this situation.

Congratulations, Sylvia! I can tell you, my roses NEVER looked as good in the Newhall garden as they did when I could leave the overhead, oscillating sprinkler running for a few hours in the summer. The foliage was HUGE with absolutely NO diseases and NO insects. The flowers were enormous, too. Dang! I miss those "good, old days"!

I actually have a mayten tree in our backyard. I didn’t mention that previously because mine is not a good example. When I saw it in golden gate park I just loved how it looked. So I planted a baby one in our yard but didn’t really plant it a good location. I don’t think mine will ever realize it’s true potential because my yard is too small and I just squished it in where i had space. But it now almost 20 years later it is providing privacy from the neighbors and the branches are now giving the weeping effect so it is pretty to sit under it in the hammock