Post #105688 by pariartspaul on Mon, Aug 2, 2004 8:23 AM

Okay, here's the story morning glory: About a year and a half ago when we moved into our new house here in Sacramento, the backyard was barren and I wanted to create a tropical Adventureland type jungle wonderland, so to get the landscape going I got a couple of 5 gallon giant Moso bamboo plants as well as a bunch of Alphonse Karr bamboo. So it's all doing very well. I put a dozen 1 gallon Alphonse Karr's along the back fence (about a 60 foot length) and that's doing beautifully, with lots of new tall shoots right now. I put a couple of 5 gallon Alphonse Karr in a couple of select spots and they are doing incredibly, gorgeous with lots of huge shoots coming up now. Well, the Alphonse Karr is the clumping variety for sure, so I'm not worried about it spreading, I can keep it under control. But I just found out that the Moso is the running variety! I'd swear they told me it was a clumping variety when I bought it at the nursery!! I have one on one side of the yard where there's nothing beyond the fence but 15 feet of easment (dirt) all the way out to the street so it's fine to take over, but on the other side, it's maybe 10 feet from neighbors backyards on either side (it's in the corner) and that's the one I'm getting worried about. We do have hard clay soil here, and when you don't water, it's like rock hard, so I never water the back side of the Moso, but on the front side right now there is these great huge alien shoots coming up, maybe 4" in diameter and they're growing fast! No problem there, and so far nothing is coming up on the backside. But boy if you saw them it is kind of scary to think something of that size might wander! I'm thinking of digging a trench on the back side and filling it with concrete for security, I'd hate for them to spread out the backside!
Any advice from anyone who's grown Moso? I definitely want to keep it, it's incredible looking.