The one above is the golden and black planted as a screen. The next one, below, is the black with the lower branches cut off. The thin black culms are the originals. They were planted in late 2008. The spotted, thicker ones are the growth from 2010. The thick, completely green ones are new from this year.

I cut the lower branches from the 2008-2010 culms but the new green 2011 culms have not produced lower branches yet, they've just begun to fluff out at the top.

The height of the original black is about 4-6'.
The height of the spotted is 6-10'.
The height of the new green is 10-15' (and some is still growing)

I cut the lower branches from the bottom to about 4' high.

{{gwi:413329}}

If you look to the far left of the first picture, you will see the blacks are bare at the bottom. It's kind of hard to see, sorry. You will see the goldens on the left and they have begun to send out new growth for this year which filled in the bases, so they're not obviously bare. Next year I will strip the bottoms of the yellows as well, and whatever comes out of the bases of the greens.

My new Golden Shoots:

{{gwi:413331}}

Bottoms of the culms thinned out and new shoots coming up on the right.

{{gwi:413332}}

You can see the bottoms have been thinned out and the new growth is poking up the top. These were planted in 2010. The bottoms are starting to thicken in again from the new growth.

{{gwi:413333}}

This is how they look on the skyline. You can see the older boo is much shorter, and the new boo has not yet stopped growing.

{{gwi:413334}}

Thanks for the photos. How do you confine the growth of the bamboos within their designated growing area?

Concrete block planters with really deep footings.

Yes, that is certainly what I envision. Beautiful. And I have little 2' plants coming.