Advice on using BAMBOO in place of privacy trees! Hello, I am wanting to use bamboo that is native to Illinois to create a visual barrier between my house and a neighboring apartment complex. I saw some gorgeous native bamboo in a downtown Chicago park, and read that it was perfect for the climate. What are pros and cons of using bamboo for privacy? Best way to plant it? It's appealing because it can grow in partly sunny areas and grows more rapidly than the 1 foot per year Thuja tree options....

A clumping bamboo should be a great privacy hedge. A running bamboo will swallow your yard and the neighbor's too. Which type is the native you admire?

Giant cane (Arundinaria gigantea).

Arundinaria gigantea

The Arundinaria leaves won't be evergreen in your climate, and when they die they won't fall off like they would from a tree. Sounds like it would be a constant mess in your yard. If what you say was nice, I am guessing it was cut down in the spring and allowed to regrow with all new growth (and leaves).

Arundinaria gigantea is evergreen in Kentucky, I've never heard of it being deciduous in certain climates. It tends to look a bit scraggly in Feb-March, but the leaves do not die off, just look a little yellowed at the edges.

Also the leaf litter is minimal and easy to deal with, and you don't get twigs or branches dropping, so it wouldn't be messier than any tree.

Arundinaria is a running bamboo, but it is not as aggressive as the Asian varieties, very easily contained by mowing at the edge of the colony where it is trying to spread. It will not continue putting up shoots in a direction where it has repeatedly encountered disturbance. However it needs to have some space, a somewhat wide swath to grow to a large size and to thrive well. I see it along fence rows a lot, growing in a band at least 6ft wide or so.

The biggest challenge might be sourcing it.

I encourage you to explore this one further, it's an incredibly underused plant with numerous wildlife and human uses.

FYI, thread started a year ago.