I was just congratulating myself on my tiny bamboo plant which has trebled in size since I bought it at 1.5in high, its inside on my kitchen windowsill. However, I was out walking the dog when I spotted a house with a bamboo hedge! Surely its a plant which has to grow in fairly tropical conditions, so how can it survive outside in this country? We live in North Yorkshire by the way, so not the south coast or cornwall where tropical palms and stuff can survive.
It'll grow above the snowline in the mountains where pandas live (not Edinburgh).
Nothing really grows in Edinburgh, except the appetite of the council for crushing the spirit.
The way I see it. is that there are many different species of this plant, some very tender and some very hardy.
If it finds the environment to its liking, its likely to grow very rapidly.
I've seen some plants on sale that are not even bamboo, but rather a species of 'Dracaenia' intended as a houseplant.