Bamboo is a terrible invasive garden thug. Bamboo is a well-behaved clumper that is a great addition to any garden especially if you are looking for the Oriental look. Confused? Just pick the one that the Pandas are eating.

Maybe it would be easier to realize that often common names are misleading or inconclusive. If you wish to be safe in a plant selection, a bit of attention to the Latin name is very helpful.

You don't need to be an expert with Latin names, but if you are searching for a plant you read about, the Latin name is the surest route to finding it.

Meanwhile, back to the bamboo. I have a fleet of lawn mowers that wish the only abuse they got was from mowing. Therefore, I make frequent trips to the repair shop. One way I go I pass a bamboo jungle along a stream bank.

If I take the alternate route I pass a maze of bamboo perched high on a dry bank. Careful study would suggest that the one along the stream is slightly more prolific than the one on the dry bank.

Longwood Gardens grows this one in a bed with a cement bottom and walls. Enough said about any bamboo starting with the Latin Phyllostachys.

On the other hand, there are well-behaved clumping bamboos beginning with the Latin name Fargesia. This one likes sun to part shade and organic soils with good drainage. That's rather easy in this location.

If you spot one in a garden center with one of those fancy picture tags on it I suspect that it will overstate the height of the finished plant. I am familiar with one that said 15 to 18 feet but is barely nine feet after five years.

Until a few years ago, the clumping bamboo was priced well above my budget. The reason was that they are difficult to divide or propagate by conventional methods.

That changed when a company in Europe mastered production by tissue culture. Tissue culture is a process where you can take a small bit of plant tissue, in sterile conditions with defined growth medium, and produce literally hundreds of small plants.

Tissue culture won't toss bamboo into the bargain bin, but has greatly increased its availability and reduced its price to a fraction of what it was several years ago.

Fragesia has one interesting quirk. When it blooms, it dies. In China, there have been several years with lots of plants blooming that threatened the Pandas with starvation.

I have heard estimates of the plant age for bloom ranging anywhere from seven to fifty years. In a recent Longwood class the instructor claimed he planted one, which bloomed the following year and died. I recently planted some and I hope they don't bloom for a long time.

In conclusion, there is interesting bamboo now available for the garden. However, if your neighbor offers you a starter plant don't take it without buying lots of cement first.