I'm not in your area but can give you some info.

Bamboo can grow in clay. In fact, it can grow too well. My grandmother had planted some bamboo at the edge of her yard -- clay hills on the Louisiana/Mississippi border. It threatened to take over not only her yard but all of her neighbors' yards. I spent a very miserable summer helping my father eradicate bamboo.

I can't give you any info regarding climate requirements. Her home was in zone 8b.

Yes, bamboo can grow very well here. I've been interested in Green Panda, a Fargesia cultivar that is reported to top out at about 10 feet.

Be careful. I only know about the non-clumping types, and unless confined, they can be invasive - even the natives - and difficult to eradicate.
I have a friend in the Cookeville TN area who planted a 'timber-type' bamboo, and now she's having some major misgivings about having done so - she's not even convinced that it won't overcome and dominate established trees in her native hardwood forest.

A favorite of mine is Golden Goddess - tops out at about 8-10 ft or so and is a clumper. Has the potential to get just a little taller than that in frost free or mostly frost free climates, or so I've been told. Fairly drought tolerant once established, likes full sun to part shade. I've been seeing it more frequently at local nurseries in the last yr or so, but it can also be ordered online. I have a couple of privacy hedges of this bamboo along the left and right sides of my front yard, and just love it.

It should also do well in your area, I think. Folks in NC can grow it just fine, even though their winters are a little cooler than mine.

At my current residence, I've had these "hedges" in for less than a year and a half, and they are already close to 7' tall. In the picture below (see link), the fence is 6.5' tall, and the bamboo has grown almost a foot since I took the pic.

Here is a link that might be useful: Golden Goddess clumping bamboo

I thought you might also find it of interest to see what this looked like as a newer planting. I planted in Nov '06, and we had a really hard winter here (relatively speaking), the coldest in ten yrs. Plus, we went straight from a major drought right into an early freeze right after I got it planted. A couple of leaves browned up (minor) before the plants had a chance to lock in and become established, but the culms were completely unaffected.

These were from 5 gallon pots, with the plants divided in half to save a little $$. In late June of last yr, here is what it looked like (see attached). It grows fast...

Here is a link that might be useful: new planting of bamboo

suze9
thanks for the info, unfortunately I can't see the pics. It's asking me to log in

hsvcara, sorry about that. I didn't realize those pictures were set as private, and I don't read the Southern Gardening forum often, otherwise I would have corrected it sooner. The links I posted above should work for you now if you'd also like to view the full-sized versions (click on link in upper right-hand corner next to "Full Size").

Golden Goddess, May 2008

Golden Goddess, June 2007 (year one)