How bamboos reproduce
“I’LL never have bamboo again. It just took over the garden, and was impossible to get rid of…” I’ve heard this so many times, and that’s a shame because most temperate bamboos are nowhere near as invasive as popular myth would have us believe. In the main, bamboos reproduce vegetatively – that is, by sending up new shoots from below ground level – rather than setting seed; in fact, they rarely flower.
Clump-forming bamboos have shoots that come from short, stubby rhizomes just under the ground; these bamboos are non-invasive. Running bamboos, however, come from longer, branching rhizomes under the soil; these are the invasive, spreading types.