Call some landscapers in the area. My neighborhood has lots of bamboo growing in it (its replaced some privacy fences and blocks some of the noise from the highway access road behind us. I have no clue the variety but its supposedly its over 100 years old and came from China, and from all my reading we shouldn't even be able to have hardy bamboo in the area.

We have used the bamboo for tomato support poles, but it has to be a couple of years old before you can harvest poles strong enough to do anything.

I will see if the neighbors know the name of the variety since I have only lived here a year.

Please let us know about what variety it is. Would you be able dig up a rizome or two? If so I'm interested.

Thanks,
Little John

I would love some too please! chris

Phyllostachys parvifolia might have the best chance to gain size in zone 5.

I'm not on the gardenweb forums very much anymore but I can definitely chime in on this one. Our forest of yellow groove bamboo has done very well in zone 5 Muncie, Indiana and now we have about a 20x50 grove of it. It's shooting taller than ever this year and a few of the shoots so far are 20 feet tall and still growing! we've had it out for about 6-7 years now. It didn't even get any leaf burn last winter, so it looks really great this year.

I would love a piece for Zone 5 here in Michigan!