My GF has an old giant bed of clumping bamboo in her back yard. It is taller than her two story house, about 8 ft diameter clump of it, and just beautiful. It is so dense, she doesn't even need window coverings on her upstairs windows. But she is always cutting back new growth out of her deck boards and around the border of it's bed. The tall bamboo bends and often has to be trimmed back so that it doesn't touch the roof even though it was planted 20 yards away. It is beautiful but even clumping bamboo will spread over time.
