Does anyone have any suggestions for growing bamboo in outdoor containers? I am looking for suggestions on specific species to buy. I am in zone 5 (mid-Ohio) so they need to be pretty cold hardy. I have an unheated garage I cold store it in during the coldest days...otherwise it would need to with stand the winter cold.
Bamboo in outdoor containers
I have seen bamboo planted in a plastic nursery pot buried in the ground. It looks like it is growing naturally, but the pot contains it. I would be tempted to put a pot in a larger pot just to be certain the bamboo didn't escape. A second pot may make it easier to remove it for winter.
There are some bamboos that are hardy in your area, but they are all the badly behaved running bamboos, so if you do want to plant one in your garden you'll need to install root barriers to keep it from spreading. I don't know if I'd trust a plastic nursery pot to do the job, I think the roots would break out of the plastic.
Most of the clumping bamboos are a lot more tender, but there are a couple that are hardy in zone 6b-7a so those might be OK if you drag them in the garage on cold days.
Here's a website that lists the hardiness of various bamboos as well as whether they're runners or clumpers. I think Columbus is zone 5b so for hardiness, look for ones that are listed to -15 F. They will all be runners so you'll have to do the root barrier with them. If you'd like to try a clumper, look for the ones that have a "C" in the type column, and for the hardiness you'll have to think about how often you want to drag it into the garage--I'd probably look for ones that are hardy to 0 since that way hopefully you won't have to drag it in too many nights. (keep in mind that being in a container knocks a bit off the hardiness, so I wouldn't wait until it gets to the minimum temperature listed to bring it in, I'd add 10 degrees and bring it in any night that's going to be colder than that.
http://www.bamboosourcery.com/bamboo.cfm
I grew P. nuda in a large pot outdoors for several years here in western PA (similar zone to you), but eventually lost it. I think the problem was that it could not send out renewing runners due to the confining of the pot and eventually could not be sustained in the pot. If I were going to try this again, I would definitely sink the pot in the ground. I do think you would need to periodically repot, doing some root pruning, to keep it going. Your best bet, in my opinion, would be in ground, with a barrier in place. Another option to try would be to use a large root control bag (not a grow bag) set in the ground. However, P. nuda does have the ability to survive our typical winters - I think mine made it 4 years above ground in a pot.
Thanks everyone. I appreciate your suggestions. It's been a while since I visited this site and it was a nice surprise to find some useful comments to my earlier post. Thanks again.