The funny part is that clumping bamboo actually makes a great privacy hedge. It’s leafy, grows in thick bunches, very quickly hits like 10-20 feet tall (depending on the variety), and doesn’t rapidly spread. So it can be a great option for people looking for a perimeter hedge or property divider.

The tricky part is that most bamboo isn’t clumping. Most is running bamboo, which rapidly spreads, doesn’t grow very tall, and will break past basically every barrier (like sidewalks and landscaping stonework) that most other plants would be stopped by. It’s also extremely difficult to kill, because it stores nutrients in the (extremely wide) root system. So even if you cut it down, it’ll just grow right back again somewhere else.

And plenty of people have accidentally planted running bamboo, thinking it was clumping bamboo.