Bambusa textilis, and most of it's varieties, do very well. They are the tallest and cold hardiest here.

The 'regular' textilis is a very thick clumper and reaches 40 feet in height here...makes a great windbreak, and also tolerates wind very well.

We had more freezes than usual here this past Winter, and it went down to 22F one night and stayed below freezing for over 10 hours and the bamboo only lost a few leaves, but otherwise was undamaged. Seems to be drought tolerant and not sensitive to overwatering.

In the past, it went down to 15F on more than one occassion, and it survived without losing any culms.

Kt

I have a similar question. I live on the southern Chesapeake Bay. Wind is the most difficult factor. I'm looking for a clumper that will grow to 15' -20' close to the house. The area gets afternoon sun. Also looking for a clumper - 20-25 feet tall to use as a windbreak - the windbreak area also receives afternoon sun.

I read that most clumpers prefer shade. Is this accurate?

In addition to wind, we have occcasional salt water flooding during tropical storms and hurricanes, this is generally short lived and most plants recover.

Most of my clumpers are in FULL (Texas)sun, and that is where they do best. Extremely hot and humid.

Now, I'm talking mainly about the Bambusas, if you are talking about some of the mountain clumpers(Fargesias, etc), then maybe they need shade.

Look into some of the Bambusa multiplexes. There are many many varieties to choose from. There are many different coloured ones, different growth heights, but all are real cold hardy and like full sun, but can be planted in shade, but they will not get as thick and will grow a bit taller in shade.

I still like the B. textilis, since it tolerates high wind very well and is very cold hardy. It needs little care and after it reaches some size, the lower culms have no branches showing off the beautiful culms.

The textilis in front of my house gets sun ALL day long. That's almost 12 hours during Summer months.

Kt

Thanks for the replies, I had a Textillis that I got from Bambooplantation on recomendation from I believe you Kentuck, but I left it outside in the pot (I was told by bamboo plantation to let it shoot once in the pot before planting in the ground)

WELL I didn't get around to planting in the ground and we had some freak cold weather which killed it.

I planted the roots in the ground but have not seen anything come up so I think it's Gone..

I real shame, but I might try and order another one sometime I hated to loose it since it was kind of expensive for me.

My silverstripe seems to be doing pretty well but my BM Goldengoddess isn't doing a lot.

I also have a ALfonse kar that a gardenwebber gave me that seems to be doing pretty well after I thought it was completely dead.

Although it is a clump-runner rather than a true clumper, Semiarundinaria fastuosa grows into a perfect dead ringer of a mid-sized tropical clumper (with culms 2 to 5 inches apart) if its occasional wandering shoots are removed. I also have one plant where I allowed a single runner to come up 10 feet from the original clump and in the next few years it sent up many shoots all along the length of that wandering rhizome between the original clump and the single wandering shoot, so I now have a clump shaped like a long keyhole. This characteristic is useful when you are trying to produce a hedge. Fastuosa will grow in sun or high shade, growing more erect in sun and with the outer ring of culms curving outward when growing in shade. Height to 35 feet, cold hardy to -5F, and the typical growth rate of a temperate running bamboo.

Pam,
We are practically neighbors. I live just across the water (Hampton,VA).

I'm currently growing these with great success:
Bambusa multiplex 'Golden Goddess'
Otatea acuminata aztecorum - Mexican Weeping Bamboo
Thamnocalamus tessellatus - Berg bamboo