RickCorey said:
I originally chose F. rufa because I wanted to grow bamboo poles and hoops around 1/2" diameter. After four years, mine is still closer to a thick, stiff grass than a bamboo skewer, let alone a chopstick or 1/2" hoop!
RickCorey said: When I said "a few inches per year of spread" I meant the diameter of the soil patch from which culms emerge.
RickCorey said:I'm not sure what that works out to in width-per-year, but my 2-year plant sprawled around 5 feet wide.
I don't have a photo of my three-year plant in the fall after new culms "sprawled", but I have a photo of it 4.5 years old, pre-new-growth, that suggests my 3-year plant must have been around 8 feet wide .
RickCorey said:
I bought it as a tiny clump in July 2009, from Home Depot, in a 2-3 quart pot. It wasn't MUCH bigger the second year, perhaps it "only" doubled or tripled the size of its foliage. And July might have on the late edge for planting it out. If you start with bigger, more expensive plants and give them better soil, yours may take off faster than mine.
RickCorey said:... you could buy fewer clumps and divide each 3-4 ways after 2-3 years. Replant 1 or 2 or 3 clumps between each original clump. And then you would have a uniform hedge, instead of 18 umbrellas in a row.
RickCorey said:>> Arundo donax
A runner? You are a naughty person!
RickCorey said:is 4 years old but BEFORE it's Year Four growth spurt. So this is how wide it must have been late in Year Three, after drooping.