Clumping vs. Running Bamboo
Which type is right for your yard? Here's how running and clumping bamboo compare for screening, climate, and control.
Which provides the best screen?
Running bamboo
Running bamboo can create a serene privacy screen or a beautiful grove to walk through. With easy maintenance, runners form a dense, very vertical natural screen — effective even in narrow urban planting sites.
Clumping bamboo
Clumpers leave a lot to be desired for screening: they're narrow at the base and weep over at the tops, leaving big gaps between plantings. Below is clumping bamboo planted in zone 8 back in the early 1950s.
Where can they grow?
Running bamboo
There are running species for nearly every climate zone — from the cold of Zone 5 to the warmth of the tropics.
Clumping bamboo
Clumpers are very limited in where they grow, even though there are cold-hardy and tropical varieties. Cold-hardy clumpers (mostly mountain bamboo) tolerate only a narrow band of zones and take years to reach 8–12 feet. In zones 7 and warmer they struggle and usually die from summer heat and humidity; in colder climates they do fine if you want a slow grower that matures around 8–12 feet.
Tropical clumpers grow only in very warm zones (8–9). They're giants and can grow fast like runners, but the canes are spaced so tightly that most specimens look unsightly, packed with dead canes and limbs in the interior that can't be reached without cutting away the outer canes first. A grove of running bamboo is unparalleled — and we've seen thousands over 50-plus years.
Here's Bambusa multiplex ‘Alphonse Karr’ in zone 7. It generally returns in spring if the winter isn't too severe — but most of the U.S. is zone 7 or colder, so expect similar or worse. With clumpers in marginal zones, the question isn't if they'll die, it's when. These were replaced with temperate running bamboo and the customer has been worry-free ever since. For an evergreen privacy screen, running bamboo is the best option.
How can I control them?
Running bamboo
Most running-bamboo rhizomes stay in the top 12 to 18 inches of soil. Root pruning is one control option. For a defined edge, use Bamboo Shield, choosing the depth for your USDA zone, bamboo and soil. Check the outside of the line once or twice a year and cut any rhizome crossing the lip.
Clumping bamboo
Most clumping bamboo spreads slowly and doesn't need a barrier. If you want a firm edge around a clumper anyway, near a pool, foundation or property line, use the 36 in depth. Not sure whether it runs or clumps? Plan for running bamboo.
Bamboo Shield, Sidewalk Shield, Grass Barrier and Pier Protector are ProTech Plastic brands. ProTech Plastic, Lewis Bamboo and Edge Right are Super-Sod companies.