appropriate bamboo to plant...

We are looking to plant some bamboo to hide our neighbors garage from our view. Their garage is right on the property line and happens to be two floors high, roughly 25'. We used to have bamboo there which sent "runners" out through the rest of the yard. It was hell to remove it when it spread (we did have some root barrier preventing it from spreading, but after a few years, this broke down).

We really like the look and feel of the bamboo, but we do not like the way it spread. We understand that there are other types which "clump" instead of "run".

My question, there are many types of bamboo, any recommendations for a particular type which would meet our requirements (grows at least 25' high, spreads via clumping, and is manageable)? We live in Sunset zone 24.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

The only actual bamboo that I am familiar with, gives you the nightmare scenario that you described. There is a grass called bamboo muhly that is a great substitute for small bamboo. Unfortunately for you, it only gets up to 6' high.

You didn't mention how much depth you have in the area that you are trying to screen. Something 25' high is difficult to screen if you can't use a tree.

Two possibilities are to 1) try to build a trellis for something like Lady Banksia rose to climb on or plant Italian Cypress. Italian Cypress only gets 5-6 feet wide but can get up to 40 feet tall.

I hope this info is useful.
coachcs - see my garden coach profile at: gardencoachdirectory.wetpaint.com/account/EDCLandscapeDesign

There are many different Bamboo varieties. Yes the 'running' type can be difficult to control. But if you seek out some of the 'CLUMPING' varieties, you will probably be fine. There are lots to choose from. One that is very popular is Babusa oldhami or "Timber Bamboo" This is a clumper that can grow to about 40' tall. If you want to keep it shorter, all you do is trim it off to the size you want. You mention 25' just cut the culms at that height. There are others that do not get that tall. Maybe Bambusa textilis. I think this one is about 20' to 25' tall. The deep green culms are about 1" to 1.5" in diameter. Another you might consider is Bambusa Alphonse Karr. The canes on this one are a light yellow with green stripes, probably about 20' tall. Another very pretty striped one is Bambusa vulgaris vitata. These canes are bright yellow with deep green stripes. They are about 2.5 to 3.5" in diameter and reach about 30' tall. All of these are clumping and do not run.