12-30-2010, 02:55 PM
Best of luck with your trying situation, Dinamight! I certainly can relate to your wish to screen a building site -- yesterday if possible. I've been in that situation, in fact that was how I discovered the wonders of bamboo.
The problem with using bamboo to remediate an immediate eyesore is that the affordable sizes are small plants. It will take a season or two before they come into their own. Unlike other shrubs that grow continuously, many clumping bamboos only go through shooting phases once or twice a year -- typically fall and spring. Each season, the diameter of the culms increases, so if you buy one that already has good sized culms, you gain a year or two on your screen for the price of a hundred dollars or so.
Of the ones I linked, dendrocalamus is the one that most rapidly gets a big presence. There's a good reason why the words "instant gratification" are in its description.
The Mexican weeping is a very graceful specimen, but it doesn't provide a really solid fencelike presence. Alphonse Karr is a very attractive bamboo due to its colorful culms.
The problem with using bamboo to remediate an immediate eyesore is that the affordable sizes are small plants. It will take a season or two before they come into their own. Unlike other shrubs that grow continuously, many clumping bamboos only go through shooting phases once or twice a year -- typically fall and spring. Each season, the diameter of the culms increases, so if you buy one that already has good sized culms, you gain a year or two on your screen for the price of a hundred dollars or so.
Of the ones I linked, dendrocalamus is the one that most rapidly gets a big presence. There's a good reason why the words "instant gratification" are in its description.
The Mexican weeping is a very graceful specimen, but it doesn't provide a really solid fencelike presence. Alphonse Karr is a very attractive bamboo due to its colorful culms.