Phil,

Bamboo was banned from the office of my old law firm in LA for allegedly attracting flies. Hope you don't have that problem!

I've never had that problem before. I think it was just an attempt by The Man to keep you down.

It is so clear now, the firm was discriminating against a non-native plant.

Just don't let that bamboo get into Ballona Creek! Giant reed, or Arundo donax, (a close relative of your little plant) is an aggressively invasive species that we're spending millions of dollars to eradicate from SoCal rivers. It chokes up river channels, causes flooding, and blocks spawning migration for native fish species.

This has been a Public Service Message, we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.....

It's also good for feeding your pet panda.

I actually never thought I was much of a bamboo fan until we started looking for an apartment in Singapore. The apartment we live in has a large planter box with 3 tall stands (10 to 15 feet) of bamboo.

Obviously, there was more that drew us to this place than the bamboo, but I really appreciate spending evening sitting outside under it and listening to the birds that nest in it. Yesterday, I also noticed that a few lizards live in the bamboo too. The owner of the apartment also placed some lights to shine up at the stands at night, so its quite a dramatic effect. What I like most about it thousgh is that we can pick out our apartment from several miles away! Of course bamboo is a thirsty plant, so I pour about 6 gallons of water into the planter box everyday. Being Singapore, this deluge has to be carefully managed, otherwise standing water will attract dengue fever carry mosquitoes to lay eggs!