Normally all countries with any agriculture have plant quarantines, requiring Phtyo-sanitary Certificates from the plant supplier, a time in quarantine for the imported plant.

Jamaica does all that and also flat refuses any imported plants unless from certified tissue culture.

Seeds would be your best bet.

Unautre,
Does the bambusa lako do well here in central Texas? If so is there a place it can be purshased?
Thanks,
Bill

No, or I would have some myself. :)

B. lako, rated 28F, will get top killed, foliage and culms, by those handful of low 20s morning we get every year. So it will probably never size up completely, as the absent foliage will prevent the roots from developing through the winter and early spring.
http://bambooweb.info/ShowPictures.php?Type=B&BooID=33&Desc=&Loc=&Match=AND&Button=Search

You could try in a big container, 18 - 25 gallons, if you have some place to wheel it in on cold days. You can find at Lowes and Wal-mart "storage/holdall" round plastic tubs of about 15 - 20 for $6.

http://www.bambooplantation.com/files/price_list.php

There is a dealer in Louisiana or Alabama that will ship internationaly. Start a search on the internet, unfortunately, I can't find nor rememeber the name. Cheers, Cap Carl

I have lako in a container and it does very well, but it needs to be in the ground where it can show it's full glory.

It has gotten down to 28F once, and below freezing four times aready this year and it has done fine outside.

I recently moved it inside my greenhouse. Hopefully I will be able to divide it next year and try some outside.

A much prettier bamboo of equal size and which might be a tiny bit more hardier is Gigantochloa atroviolacea
'TROPICAL BLACK'. The culms get jet black and are shiney with thin green stripes on them. Lako gets dark brown culms.

Before I trimmed each back last year, they each reach at least 16 feet in 5 gallon pots.

The hardiest large clumper for our area here in Texas is Bambusa textilis, which has easily reached 40 feet in height. One other possibility is B. Clone X, but it has a leaning habit yet is supposed to have culms over 70 feet in length.

Kt