Clumping Bamboo ‘Dwarf Hedge’

Dwarf hedge bamboo is a clumping bamboo, the well-behaved kind that expands slowly from a central crown instead of running across the yard. Dense, fine-textured evergreen canes reach 6 to 10 feet, making a soft, rustling privacy screen in a footprint narrower than a shrub hedge would need.

Plant it in sun to part sun in soil that holds some moisture, and water regularly the first year while the clump knits in. After that it needs little beyond an occasional thinning of old canes at the base. It screens patios, pools, and property lines without the upkeep of a sheared hedge.