Seeking your Bamboo Supplier Recommendations

Hello, Everybody:

Do you know any American bamboo products suppliers who are reasonable, sell in (relatively) small quantities and -most importantly- have stock right now? I am specifically looking for split poles to use for a small home bar. A California seller who had exactly what I needed and at an agreeable price told me supply chain issues left him empty-handed this winter. It seems like he and many others are still out of stock.

I am grateful for the help.

Hi Rich,

Have you try bamboocreasian.com or www.franksupply.com? Good luck with your search.

Thank you.

Frank's is the supplier I tried and still wish to use. I will keep reaching out periodically until his new stock comes in.

Heck, I didn't know Tiki Central was back until I randomly checked this morning! Never lose faith.

TC was back a week ago or so! Frank's is great. Bamboocreasian is a small shop in Los Alamitos near Long Beach. They have many wall coverings and they have big sanded bamboo poles that don't split open. Great for lamps!

"they have big sanded bamboo poles that don't split open."

All of Franks bamboo is guaranteed to split it's on their catalog, bamboo almost always splits over time. BUT if Franks can't get bamboo man it's gotta be kinda bad as heck that is most of what they sell.

So you are in luck as this is the best time of year to find bamboo as the garden and nursery stores will stock stuff like bamboo early in the season because it splits or get damaged in the store then nobody buys it. So what they do is buy a bit of it from now till say mothers day and that's it they will buy no more.

you need to maybe go in to see if they have it and even ask if they have some coming even go to Loews and other hardware stores. Keep checking it might be hit or miss this year.

Do you really want to pay the kind of shipping they will charge you from Franks?

Good luck, let people know what you find if any.

Heck I have tons from the Kahiki but nobody wants that old stuff.

This guy!

//Heck I have tons from the Kahiki but nobody wants that old stuff.//

That was a bit of a joke Simon.

So, we went to the garden store last week and there in the corner of the store was a bundle of 1" bamboo poles still tied together ready to be put out for sale and that was all I saw as far as bamboo went.

For Ohio people that was at the Dublin Oakland nursery store.

Don't know if the 2" or larger will be that easy to find but even they had only like 10 poles?

What size are you looking for?

So this is so funny some 20 days after you posted this my brother emailed me and said "hey did you see this bamboo listed online'

Well no I had not, it was 2 inch and 1.5 inch by 8 feet mostly but a good amount of it for a great price.

It was about a half hour away from us, so we went and bought it.

The people were going to build a tiki bar out back and now are moving to Fla but get this they did not know of TC or the Mai Kai or even Tikiskip lights! Wow they are going to be wasting lots o time looking up the sites I told them of.

But the shipping on this would have been way more than what we paid for the bamboo, will try to post pics.

So where do you find bamboo? Ya find it where you find it, and I don't even need this stuff and was not even looking for it.

But one day I will be glad we bought it, always regret when we pass up great deals and later need that thing we did not buy.

If your in Columbus ever come and get some, we have extra.

I can vouch for Bamboocreasian! All of my woven bamboo panels in the Lagoon of Mystery came from them. The best price for said panels and the most reasonable shipping I've come across. Ordering their four-pack of panels gives the most bang for the buck.

I've ordered lauhala and bac-bac from Franks. At some point I'm ordering a bunch of rattan to refurbish some of our peacock chairs. Shipping is on the high side, but they're dependable.

For timber bamboo, there's a place in Austin, Bamboo Branch, that brings it in from Louisiana. They sell it by the foot, so I just go and pick out what I need. They cut it to length for me. For smaller sizes, 1.5'-2" diameter, there are several groves of Golden bamboo around here I have access to so I harvest myself. No bamboo weevils in Texas, so that simplifies matters.

[ Edited by Prikli Pear on 2022-04-20 12:57:12 ]

So here is that bamboo my brother found online, it is all 2 inch after all and I think they are 10 foot poles. Got 18 poles and some other stuff, bamboo fence like thing and a bamboo screen too.

BUT after looking at it here is where they got it all.

Went to the online site and it's hard to get the prices for their stuff still don't know pricing. But if you are near them it would be worth it to go check them out.

Says they are one of the largest bamboo suppliers?

Forever bamboo has a good site with prices lots o stuff too. They have thatch Bamboo poles, fencing, I think they might have better selection than Franks.

BUT they too are out of a lot of the 2 inch Bamboo.

Some of the bamboo has free shiping, looks like a great place.

https://foreverbamboo.com/bamboo-products/#

[ Edited by tikiskip on 2022-04-26 05:59:42 ]

I've bought from Forever Bamboo before. Have not been disappointed.

Backyard Xcapes has their own site, but I believe most of their business comes through supplying Home Depot, Lowe's and other big box home improvement chains. I've never bought from them directly, but have bought their stuff through Home Depot because the price was significantly better (with no shipping costs when picked up in-store).

Prices and shipping can fluctuate wildly, so if you know what you need, shop around as best you can before ordering.

Thanks for the tips, everybody! My head has been away from all things tiki since posting this but now I am inspired to get back to the hunt.

Funnily, I am indeed originally from Ohio and a former Columbusite. You bet I would have come by to pick up any and all extra bamboo you have to spare! Not an option now, sadly. Thank you anyway.