Clumping Bamboo Alabama
The knowledgeable staff at Palmco in Bokeelia, Florida, can help you find spectacular varieties of clumping bamboo for your landscaping jobs in coastal Alabama.
Palmco is a wholesale bamboo nursery that serves the east coast of Florida up to the Carolina Coast and along the Gulf Coast from Alabama to Texas, as well as many other regions of the United States.
You’ll find everything from the most prolific species of clumping bamboo – Seabreeze – to the variety that quickly produces the largest diameter culms (3” to 4”) – Oldhamii. Overall, we grow 9 breathtaking varieties of non-invasive clumping bamboo that are well-suited to the southern Alabama climate.
What is Clumping Bamboo?
Clumping bamboo is NOT invasive. It has a pachymorph rhizome system with short, thick roots that grow in a close circular clump, expanding very slowly by only a few inches per year. Unlike more aggressive running bamboos, it doesn’t expand horizontally beyond its assigned space.
If you’ve hesitated about using bamboo in your landscape for fear that it will run rampant and be impossible to control, consider non-invasive clumping bamboo varieties. Clumping bamboo is easy to control and maintain, grows well in USDA Zones 8 to 10, and is ideal for use as privacy screens, hedges, living fences, windbreaks, and to stabilize soil on slopes.
Popular Varieties of Clumping Bamboo
Alphonse Karr Bamboo (Bambusa multiplex ‘Alphonse Karr’)
This variety is a dense Chinese bamboo that grows to 20 to 25 feet with 1-inch diameter bright yellow culms with random dark green stripes. New shoots and culms often have a pinkish hue. It makes a spectacular hedge or barrier and will give a golden glow to any garden. Alphonse Karr Bamboo has low water requirements. Once established, it can tolerate cold weather as low as 12°F to 18°F.
Oldhamii Bamboo (Bambusa oldhamii)
This popular variety is sometimes called Giant Timber Bamboo, but it’s not a giant or a timber bamboo, although it does grow quickly to about 55 feet tall with large 4” to 5” diameter culms. When grown in the shade, new culms are a dark green with silver powder. In sunny conditions, culms will have more of an orange hue. Oldhamii Bamboo makes a stunning hedge, screen or wind barrier. It’s tolerant of a variety of climates and can handle frost to 20°F and short wet and dry spells. The large canes make lovely “bamboo sounds” when swaying in the wind.
Seabreeze Bamboo (Bambusa malingensis)
This variety is a Palmco customer favorite. Native to Southern China, it can quickly reach heights of 35 to 40 feet to form a beautiful screen. The 2 ½” diameter canes have a distinctive bluish-white blush in each section. When mature, it forms a graceful umbrella-shaped arch and is ideal for hedges and windbreaks. Seabreeze Bamboo is salt-tolerant, drought-tolerant, and an excellent performer in areas exposed to coastal winds. The canes also make those recognizable creaking “bamboo sounds” in the breeze. This very hardy clumping bamboo can withstand temperatures down to 20°F.
Palmco produces the healthiest, strongest bamboo for the wholesale market, nurturing each plant in our moderately warm, fertile environment.
To find out which types of clumping bamboo may be ideal for your Alabama landscaping project, we invite you to tour our plantation in Bokeelia, Florida to see our plants for yourself, or call us today at (239) 283-1329 or (855) GOPALMCO.