I'm looking to plant some bamboo for an immediate screen and have found some great options online. I've been speaking to bamboo nurseries and have been told that fargesia is clumping and completely non-running. The two places I've spoken to were very confident about this and said I could plant it straight into the ground with no worries as it doesn't send out runners.
I have a 2.5 meter trough to plant it in, it will sit along a fence, half on soil and half on patio flagstones. The trough doesn't have a bottom so I guess the roots will eventually stretch down into the earth.
I have lived next to a garden with running bamboo before and am aware of the difficulties involved in stopping it spreading and removing it. The nurseries tell me this won't happen with this particular species.
Given the bad press invasive bamboo often gets, I wondered if anyone had any direct experience or knowledge of this type of bamboo? Fingers crossed for a bamboo expert!
My second question is - if it is ok to plant in this trough, what soil or compost would I use? I have a jumbo bag of topsoil but should I use compost? It's a huge trough so might be quite expensive - maybe I could do the bottom with the topsoil and the top half with compost? Is there a particular type of compost that would work well with bamboo?
TIA!