New pool with landscaping

[Tropicdoc]

Man I y’all had me convinced on a triple roebellini in the marked spot but now with mention of rupicola.....

[Tropicdoc]

3 hours ago, Zeeth said:

Would Trachycarpus princeps grow in your area? 

I think it would and would like it somewhere T martianus has been good and I have a large one to replant somewhere

[Sandy Loam]

For screening, skip the ligustrum, bamboo and the ginger, in my opinion.  If you want it dense and tall so that you can't see your neighbours, but you also want it to be manageable --- AND you want it to be green year round:  sweet viburnum.  As long as it is growing in  sun and gets a ton of water constantly, you will be shocked at how quickly it springs into a fifteen-foot tall hedge.  You could keep it about four feet wide and fifteen feet tall if you buy a ladder and a hedge trimmer.

Ligustrum is somewhat fast and nice/glossy, but you can see through it.  It simply isn't dense like sweet viburnum.  Also, sweet viburnum will not drop a single leaf at 17 degrees. But don't grow it in shade or else it will be slow.  I don't know who much sun there is in the spot where you are trying to screen out your neighbours.  

[topwater]

Any zone 9 people growing Kerriodoxa?  A while back, Keith posted a journal of some palm nuts long term survivors in a 9a southeast garden,  FL panhandle maybe, and I was surprised to see it made the cut. I have a small one in a pot, gorgeous palm, but I can’t attest to its cold hardiness, yet. 

[Ben in Norcal]

1 minute ago, topwater said:

Any zone 9 people growing Kerriodoxa?  A while back, Keith posted a journal of some palm nuts long term survivors in a 9a southeast garden,  FL panhandle maybe, and I was surprised to see it made the cut. I have a small one in a pot, gorgeous palm, but I can’t attest to its cold hardiness, yet. 

No-go in 9b/10a Norcal.

[Tropicdoc]

10 minutes ago, Sandy Loam said:

For screening, skip the ligustrum, bamboo and the ginger, in my opinion.  If you want it dense and tall so that you can't see your neighbours, but you also want it to be manageable --- AND you want it to be green year round:  sweet viburnum.  As long as it is growing in  sun and gets a ton of water constantly, you will be shocked at how quickly it springs into a fifteen-foot tall hedge.  You could keep it about four feet wide and fifteen feet tall if you buy a ladder and a hedge trimmer.

Ligustrum is somewhat fast and nice/glossy, but you can see through it.  It simply isn't dense like sweet viburnum.  Also, sweet viburnum will not drop a single leaf at 17 degrees. But don't grow it in shade or else it will be slow.  I don't know who much sun there is in the spot where you are trying to screen out your neighbours.  

I will look into the vibernum I do think there is a ligustrum that’s dense around town but maybe it’s viburnum 

i also know of a tall hedgerow made with huge pittosporum that I like

[Tropicdoc]

4 minutes ago, Ben in Norcal said:

No-go in 9b/10a Norcal.

Thats what I thought T princeps is a good substitute 

[Sandy Loam]

55 minutes ago, Tropicdoc said:

Man I y’all had me convinced on a triple roebellini in the marked spot but now with mention of rupicola.....

Hello again, Tropicdoc.  Rupicola and robelleni will both look like crap if you have a bad winter, so you don't want them to be visible as a centerpiece.  Instead, plant them back, buried deep in your "jungle" area (so you can clip off the brown fronds and nobody will notice).  They will spring back every year by, say, April-May and look great again.

If you want a cold-hardy centerpiece palm that will stay green all year round in your climate (and you have no fusarium wilt or TPPD in your region), I recommend a Mule or else a Patric Schaeffer hybrid (some of which will not be affected by FW or TPPD anyway).   You will need speed and hardiness.  Both options provide that.  I also recommend CIDP as a centrepiece, but you would have to buy it mature (too slow otherwise) for a lot of money and have it trucked in (and if you get TPPD or fusarium wilt, it could die anyway). 

Someone mentioned phoenix reclinata too.  I do believe that the tough reclinata hybrids would do fine in your winters, but the problem would be finding a huge mature one and trucking it in for too much money. They are too slow growing (for me) because they spend all of their energy suckering like crazy.

Someone else suggested Livistona Chinensis, Livistona Nitida and Livistona Decora.  Those will also be hardy in your region, but I don't think any of them are a centerpiece palm.  They are for your border jungle, not the centerpiece.  Nitida and Decora will stay looking perfect and green if you get a freeze below 20. Chinensis may or may not still look all green when you get below 20 degrees (another reason to make them part of your jungle).  How did your Livistona Chinensis do at 17 degrees?  None of them are fast enough to walk underneath within a few years anyway -- too slow, although the fastest would be Decora.  My fave is Chinensis, but they don't get super tall like Nitida and semi-tall like Decora.  I also have super cold-hardy Livistona rigid, Livistona Mariae, and a hybrid decora/mariae. They seem to be fast enough, but it is too soon to tell. Anyway, they are all fan Palms, not centrepiece Palms.

[topwater]

4 minutes ago, Ben in Norcal said:

No-go in 9b/10a Norcal.

Bummer.  If your place is too cold it would be hopeless down here. 

[Tropicdoc]

2 minutes ago, Sandy Loam said:

Hello again, Tropicdoc.  Rupicola and robelleni will both look like crap if you have a bad winter, so you don't want them to be visible as a centerpiece.  Instead, plant them back, buried deep in your "jungle" area (so you can clip off the brown fronds and nobody will notice).  They will spring back every year by, say, April-May and look great again.

If you want a cold-hardy centerpiece palm that will stay green all year round in your climate (and you have no fusarium wilt or TPPD in your region), I recommend a Mule or else a Patric Schaeffer hybrid (some of which will not be affected by FW or TPPD anyway).   You will need speed and hardiness.  Both options provide that.  I also recommend CIDP as a centrepiece, but you would have to buy it mature (too slow otherwise) for a lot of money and have it trucked in (and if you get TPPD or fusarium wilt, it could die anyway). 

Someone mentioned phoenix reclinata too.  I do believe that the tough reclinata hybrids would do fine in your winters, but the problem would be finding a huge mature one and trucking it in for too much money. They are too slow growing (for me) because they spend all of their energy suckering like crazy.

Someone else suggested Livistona Chinensis, Livistona Nitida and Livistona Decora.  Those will also be hardy in your region, but I don't think any of them are a centerpiece palm.  They are for your border jungle, not the centerpiece.  Nitida and Decora will stay looking perfect and green if you get a freeze below 20. Chinensis may or may not still look all green when you get below 20 degrees (another reason to make them part of your jungle).  How did your Livistona Chinensis do at 17 degrees?  None of them are fast enough to walk underneath within a few years anyway -- too slow, although the fastest would be Decora.  My fave is Chinensis, but they don't get super tall like Nitida and semi-tall like Decora.  I also have super cold-hardy Livistona rigid, Livistona Mariae, and a hybrid decora/mariae. They seem to be fast enough, but it is too soon to tell. Anyway, they are all fan Palms, not centrepiece Palms.

Look up against the fence to the left of the pic.... my chinensis unfazed at 17 F

the spot I marked is at the edge of the live oak canopy behind south side of garage bordering pool deck.... I think any mules or hybrids are too big for the spot

the centerpieces will be 4 butia x parajubaea hybrids I have put near the gate at the end view of the pool to give a “coconut” feel. I think I’m gonna put 3 on 1 side 1 on the other to give a more relaxed tropical feel instead of a formal symmetric arrangement..... thoughts? 

[Tropicdoc]

My rendering in perspective of plantings at 5 years from now... spineless yucca over there behind the spa

[Sandy Loam]

Great --- the yucca elephantipes will stay perfectly green no matter how cold it gets there in Houma, Louisiana.  They grow like weeds (even in shade) and always look great.

[Kailua_Krish]

Awabuki viburnum is the only one I would plant. Super tropical looking and rock solid hardy

Ive had 3 Kerriodoxa for 6+ years in 9a central Florida however it’s in a warm spot (pothos grow high into these oaks) and seems to be at the border of hardiness. The plus side is that it’s easy to protect the bud and they look good with even 1-2 leaves

edit: Farfugium giganteum is an excellent tropical looking groundcover that mimicks Giant begonias. 

[Tropicdoc]

Just looked up awabuki vibernum I want one... thanks. Not really tall enough for the purpose in question though

i also like fatsia as a medium size tropical look shrub

[Sandy Loam]

Yeah, Fatsia Japonica is really nice looking and is incredibly cold-hardy.  It won't be damaged in the slightest, even if you hit the high teens in Houma. Louisiana. I used to have one, but it died because it got covered in some black sooty mould or scale.  I am not sure whether it liked the shade much either.  I don't know what I did wrong. 

Don't expect Fastia Japonica to grow very tall though.  The tallest one I was was about my height. 

[Sandy Loam]

Also ---- Most of everything mentioned above is green. I recommend a splash of colour to pop out from the edges of your edges of poolside landscaping, but that's hard to accomplish mid-winter, especially after a big freeze.  For winter colour, my best stand-by in these harsh conditions has been Cordyline Australis "Red Star.". There is also Cordyline Australis "Purpura", "Red Sensation" and many others with colour.  Even after this nasty January freeze, they are still looking perfect even after much of my other landscaping has turned all brown.  They are MUCH more cold-hardy than the common cordyline fruticosa, and they are easy to find in the big box stores. But don't buy the little ones for $3.00.  Those ones never seem to grown into trees for me.  When I spring for the $12.99 larger ones (almost starting to trunk), they do turn into little trees.  In our climate, they don't look too much sun or too much shade.  They like a bit of both, half way in between.  They also like good drainage --- not wet, mucky clay soil.  I would never water mine, except in extreme drought (they didn't seem to like my irrigation).

After three or four years, you will have chest-height trees with tropical looking red splashes of colour staring out at you from your landscape perimeter.  .... Even in January.  No waiting for blooms because the red foliage is always there, year-round.

[Jim in Los Altos]

3 hours ago, topwater said:

Any zone 9 people growing Kerriodoxa?  A while back, Keith posted a journal of some palm nuts long term survivors in a 9a southeast garden,  FL panhandle maybe, and I was surprised to see it made the cut. I have a small one in a pot, gorgeous palm, but I can’t attest to its cold hardiness, yet. 

I've had two of them in the ground here in the Bay Area for three years and, despite slow growth, they are green and healthy. They'll never be as nice as ones grown in the tropics but they're nice nonetheless. 

[Kailua_Krish]

Don't forget to include some cycads too. Ceratozamia fuscoviridens was one of my favorite larger ones with color.

[Ben in Norcal]

9 hours ago, Jim in Los Altos said:

I've had two of them in the ground here in the Bay Area for three years and, despite slow growth, they are green and healthy. They'll never be as nice as ones grown in the tropics but they're nice nonetheless. 

Jim, you live in the tropics though!   These will never be a go for the proposed application, so I like the idea of a Trachycarpus substitute. 

[Tropicdoc]

From the grill island facing west... you can see the neighbors enormous house and my existing plantings. I want more enclosure and more jungle look

[Tropicdoc]

This from the lawn facing east. Over on the other side of the pool, behind the garage is the jungle area hiding the pool pumps

[Sandy Loam]

44 minutes ago, Tropicdoc said:

From the grill island facing west... you can see the neighbors enormous house and my existing plantings. I want more enclosure and more jungle look

Wow, that mansion next door is so tall that the windows really peer into your backyard.  I can see why you wouldn't want those neighbours looking  down at you while you're at the pool.  You would need a very tall hedge to hide that mansion and I am now second-guessing whether my prior advice (to build a hedge of Viburnum Odoratissimum - "sweet virburnum") is going to be tall enough.  How tall do you need it to be? 

By the way, a lot of people suggested palms as a screening tool in this thread.  Personally, I never think palms are a good screener.  They don't screen unless you have hundreds of them, and it may take years for your palm to get to that height and reach various heights to block the view of that mansion.  Plus, only a few palms will really grow in the shade, and you know they'll all be shading each other out if you plant a whole cluster of them together. My advice is to figure out what will be a very fast growing hedge that will (a) be dense; (b) will reach the height you need; and (c) won't slice up more than a four-foot width of your property's periphery.  You can always plant a layer of tropical stuff in front of the hedge, but don't start with huge palms that will shade out the hedge before it can grow to its desired height.  A few palms in front of the hedge row won't interfere with the hedge if they don't shade it out --- yet.  Once the hedge is tall enough, it won't matter if the palms keep growing tall over top because the hedge will already have reached its desired height.  Is 12 feet going to be tall enough?

Krishna recommended Awabuki viburnum instead of Sweet Viburnum.  I could be wrong, but I seem to recall researching Awabuki viburnum a few years back and discovered that they might drop some of their leaves if the temperature got quite cold in winter. Again, I am fuzzy on the details or maybe I am mixing this up with another shrub.  Krishna, has your Awabuki viburnum ever lost leaves in winter in Ocala?  You definitely want screening that will be unaffected by the cold and will stay attractive and green all year long.  

Sweet Viburnum doesn't look tropical.  It just looks like a green hedge.  I am not aware of any truly tropical looking hedges that one could grow in your part of Louisiana.  In Miami, they grow all sorts of giant tropical hedges (e.g. seagrape, clusia guttifera, ixora, copperleaf, etc.), but none would work in a climate like yours or mine long-term.         

Someone else recommended bamboo for screening.  For several reasons that I won't explain here, I advise against bamboo, based on my own experience. There are gorgeous bamboos that would look tropical, would provide quick screening and would stay green and perfect all year round in your part of Louisiana.  However, there are too many other negatives. I don't mind the litter that drops as new culms grow.  I do mind that you can't control either clumping or running bamboo unless you build a four foot concrete wall underground, and in all directions that require containment.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I am not a landscaper and know nothing about professional landscaping.   

 

[Kailua_Krish]

My awabuki has never lost its leaves. I think they’re pretty 9a hardy. I have mine trimmed into small trees. 

I actually disagree about bamboo. I think Bambusa “Kanapaha” is one of the best screening plants I have and would look perfect to block your neighbor. There are multiple other bambusa that could also fit the bill but that one is time tested in a 8b-9a environment. I do agree that Palms make poor screening plants in areas that can’t have the big clumpers like Euterpe so wouldn’t use them to screen your neighbors house

[Tropicdoc]

Well I have one revelation. Because of perspective etc. if a screening plant would be placed closer to the pool (at the corner of the house) it wouldn't have to be as tall. I will post a pic to show what I mean.

[Tropicdoc]

A 15 foot plant does the same as a 25 foot plant placed 15 feet farther away

[Sandy Loam]

I am just guessing, but it seems to me that you would need more than a single tree to block out that neighbour with the mansion. You would need a tall hedge row, although I do agree that a closer 15 foot hedge would do the same job as a 25 foot screen set back along the fence line. However, if you break up your yard that way, you have all of that extra unused space behind the fifteen foot screening row which will become neglected.  Plus, you might lose some of the wow factor to the sheer size of your yard if you break it up with a hedge (you want to wow the next buyer into a high price for your real estate).  The yard may end up looking smaller if you break it up like that.  I'm just speculating, of course. 

[Sandy Loam]

7 hours ago, krishnaraoji88 said:

My awabuki has never lost its leaves. I think they’re pretty 9a hardy. I have mine trimmed into small trees. 

I actually disagree about bamboo. I think Bambusa “Kanapaha” is one of the best screening plants I have and would look perfect to block your neighbor. There are multiple other bambusa that could also fit the bill but that one is time tested in a 8b-9a environment. I do agree that Palms make poor screening plants in areas that can’t have the big clumpers like Euterpe so wouldn’t use them to screen your neighbors house

If you are referring to Bambusa Textilis Kanapaha, I have seen those huge clumps of it at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens in Gainesville, FL.  It is a BEAUTIFUL blue Bamboo.  Powdery blue!  I agree -It is a no-brainer in zone 8b too.  It would start screening at about four feet of width because it is a very dense bamboo, and it would give you a thirty foot height.  One clump planted every, say, twenty feet would fill in quickly and create a giant, beautiful screening wall that blocks out the mansion and screams the tropics. 

BUT:  The problem that I have with my Bambusa clumps is containing their size. I don't have a five acre lot.  This is not a running Bamboo, so will not "take over," but the clump will grow so huge that you will have this massive thing in no time, chewing up your valuable yard space.  The rhizome will also threaten to spread outward underground onto your neighbor's property unless you plant it at least fifteen or twenty feet from the fence line --- which defeats the purpose of having a yard.  Sooner than you want, you will have a massive clump that is 15 feet in diameter (unless it grows up against something concrete). If you plant more than one clump, they will eventually grow together and form a screen, but it will simply chew up your yard. 

You could keep it to a four foot width by building an underground wall on both sides for containment, but someone has speculated that this might eventually kill the bambusa if it can't grow any more because it is confined too tightly at some point in the future (the outward growth is new, whereas the inside of the clump gradually dies and turns brown).

I am about to experiment with heavy pavers surrounding my bambusa clumps to keep them contained, but I have read elsewhere that this is just a temporary bandaid and the rhizome will eventually pop up on the other side of the pavers.

Sorry to be so long-winded, but while I love many bambusa (including B. Textilis Kanapaha), it's too hard to contain and takes up too much of the average suburban Yard. Some of the skinny cane bambusas (clumping --- never plant running bamboo) can also form a quick, tall screening hedge and are much easier to manage.  Most people around here simply run their lawn mowers along the edge to keep their skinny cane bambusa hedge in check (impossible with a big-cane Bamboo).  But the skinny cane bamboos don't get as tall (you need to hide that mansion) I don't get a thrill out of their look either.  They just don't look nearly as "bambooy" as those gorgeous, huge canes on the big bambusas.

Krishna may differ with me on this.

 

[Kailua_Krish]

The ones at Kanapaha are never thinned. Even clumping bamboo is pretty amenable to cutting out unwanted shoots and kicking over the new shoots that grow where you don't want them. This has been how I have handled the size. Maybe one day this wont be enough but for now it seems to work. This was done in Miami and Hawaii for the Sunburst bamboo and also works well in the real tropics. There are a couple of different bamboo nursery specialists that know much more than I do that you can google, they have been responsive to my questions in the past.

[Sandy Loam]

My mistake --- Bambusa Chunghii was the amazing blue bamboo that I was thinking of at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens, not Bambusa Textilis 'Kanapaha'.  Both Krishna's variety and Chunghii are being sold at their annual bamboo sale right now:   http://kanapaha.org/bamboo-sale/   All varieties on that price list are cold-hardy in your region, Tropicdoc, except possibly for Bambusa Oldhamii.  They have all been growing for decades at Kanapaha Gardens and they have seen some serious cold.  B. Oldhamii was at Kanapaha and doing fine for years, but then that big freeze in 2009 or 2010 killed it and it started growing back again from the roots as juvenile. My understanding it has since filled in and looks mature again for the past x number of years. Apart from B. Oldhamii, any other variety on that price list would take your 17 degrees without difficulty and without damage.  You could also check out the Jacksonville Zoo & Gardens web site because they should have an online list of the many bambusa growing there too, especially in the Asian garden area.  What does well in Jacksonville, FL will do well in your climate also, Tropicdoc.  

I, too, have had bamboo vendors tell me that all you have to do is knock down the new shoots when they first emerge to control the size of a clumping bamboo.  I have a few problems with that explanation:  (1) I can't monitor my bambusas closely enough to catch every single new shoot that emerges from June to November.  If I miss a couple of days, the new canes are already too rigid to kick over; (2) kicking over the new shoots doesn't stop the rhizome from continuing to expand underground; and (3) they are bamboo vendors, so they have an interest in selling bamboo and may be tempted to make it appear as though a giant-cane bambusa is super easy to control.        

  

[Tropicdoc]

A pic of my soil. Can’t complain much it’s very fertile. It just doesn’t drain very fast.

[Tropicdoc]

Here’s a pic of my 2 b x pjc transplanted closer to the pool on either side of the gate. I was thinking of doing a triple on the right side like the perspective drawing posted earlier. But now I’m having second thoughts....

[Tropicdoc]

Here's a few pics showing some progress. My "jungle" was decimated by freezing temps and excavators. It will take some time to regenerate, but, the pool was worth it. Plantings include King palm, trunking chamadorea radicalis, bird nest ferns, bromeliads, trachycarpus martianus, livistona chinensis, Arenga engleri, agapanthus lilies, monstera, dwarf alpinia, loquat tree, pothos vine, ficus pumila vine, native ferns, most recently Butia x Polyandrococos.

Notice I placed 4 butia x parajubaea at the far end of the pool, 1 on the left and 3 on the right. I like to sit and look at them..... they are close as I'm gonna get to a coconut in zone 9a!

The drift roses in the raised bed have doubled in size since these pics. Not tropical, but grow like weeds. I highly recommend them. 

Will keep everyone posted as things grow in.

[kinzyjr]

Love the look of the landscape plan and the final result both!

[mnorell]

On 2/17/2018, 7:24:29, Tropicdoc said:

I don’t even know what fusarium wilt is!

thanks for the rec on the heliconia

so.... that spot is in front of the pool pumps so I need a good green screen that looks “jungly”

maybe bamboo? I worry about how invasive that stuff can get

ive been able to flower heliconia rostrata and “carmasita” several years now but I had to tent them and heat when freezing

im kind of tired of the tenting greenhouse thing

The heliconia you want is Heliconia latispatha 'Mexican Gold.' I have trialed hundreds of heliconias up in my Natchez garden over the years and while some of them (regular orange-type latispatha and 'distans') will grow up and flower in later summer/fall before the freezes get them, the roots will be killed outright in a long cold winter such as 2010 (we had three days below freezing, highs 28F, low of 18.5F). But 'Mexican Gold' (which may not actually be a true latispatha, it has never been properly ID'd), is pretty bulletproof. It needs lots of room (big spreading and out-leaning clumps) and absolute hot full sun to flower in a season (it flowers in October in Natchez). I was just up at the house doing damage assessment and cleanup/spring planting...and it is already back up after the 13.5F we had this last winter. That's the coldest it's ever been there since we bought the house in 2004. So it is truly a winner. Others that survive the cold, for foliage only, are H. subulata, H. schiediana, and probably the strongest is a plant I purchased from Aloha Tropicals in California as H. acuminata 'Super Cheri.' It is already back up and almost three feet tall but has never flowered. I have a section of that plant now in the Keys so hopefully I will finally see flowers for an ID. But not to be counted on for blooming in 9a. The important thing for Heliconia latispatha (all types) in the Deep South is to give them full, unrelenting sun. Don't put them in shade or they probably won't be able to complete a cycle in a season.

Also I don't see any needle palms on your plan...please don't give them short shrift. A well grown needle palm, in a shady position with lots of room allowed to grow without the horrendous "haircuts" people insist on giving them...is a thing of great beauty. Makes a beautiful back-of-the-border "hedge" in shade. Trouble-free. But they are at their most beautiful in full or dappled shade. They should not be in full sun for decent appearance. After the cold this year in Natchez, I am very grateful for having planted those plants, they look so beautiful and have grown to a good size in relatively few years. But they do need some room! I would say one clump will be about six feet around, so not too close to pathways or you'll have to ruin it with pruning to clear walking/driving areas.

Also think about Acoelorrhaphe, the Everglades Palm. They will burn back to the aerial stems below about 20F and to the ground somewhere between 13-18F but mine in Natchez is coming back nicely already after that 13.5F...but don't expect them in 9a/b Louisiana to reach the dimensions of zone 10-12 Florida-grown specimens. There are nice ones around New Orleans (maybe not so nice after this winter).

Also you might want to try Alpinia japonica as a ground-cover ginger. The hardiest (foliage-wise) of the Alpinias, it will stay evergreen to 20F and you will get beautiful small shell-ginger-like pink flower-sprays every March/April. The plants stay around a foot or so tall. I think Dave Skinner usually sells them...if you can't find any PM me and I'll try to get you a start from my clumps.

Good luck, I think you will have a beautiful pool landscape there!

[Tropicdoc]

.... awesome info.... what’s good for Natchez should be good for me. I have a particular spot I can think of to put a full sun heliconia 

[Sandy Loam]

Wow, Tropicdoc, what a transformation!  The pool/whirlpool/patio looks fantastic.  I love the patio stone. Keep us updated as your landscaping takes off. 

[palmfriend]

Absolutely well done - looks awesome! 

Please keep us posted.

best regards from Okinawa -

Lars

 

[mnorell]

On 2/20/2018, 10:44:34, Sandy Loam said:

If you are referring to Bambusa Textilis Kanapaha, I have seen those huge clumps of it at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens in Gainesville, FL.  It is a BEAUTIFUL blue Bamboo.  Powdery blue!  I agree -It is a no-brainer in zone 8b too.  It would start screening at about four feet of width because it is a very dense bamboo, and it would give you a thirty foot height.  One clump planted every, say, twenty feet would fill in quickly and create a giant, beautiful screening wall that blocks out the mansion and screams the tropics. 

BUT:  The problem that I have with my Bambusa clumps is containing their size. I don't have a five acre lot.  This is not a running Bamboo, so will not "take over," but the clump will grow so huge that you will have this massive thing in no time, chewing up your valuable yard space.  The rhizome will also threaten to spread outward underground onto your neighbor's property unless you plant it at least fifteen or twenty feet from the fence line --- which defeats the purpose of having a yard.  Sooner than you want, you will have a massive clump that is 15 feet in diameter (unless it grows up against something concrete). If you plant more than one clump, they will eventually grow together and form a screen, but it will simply chew up your yard. 

You could keep it to a four foot width by building an underground wall on both sides for containment, but someone has speculated that this might eventually kill the bambusa if it can't grow any more because it is confined too tightly at some point in the future (the outward growth is new, whereas the inside of the clump gradually dies and turns brown).

I am about to experiment with heavy pavers surrounding my bambusa clumps to keep them contained, but I have read elsewhere that this is just a temporary bandaid and the rhizome will eventually pop up on the other side of the pavers.

Sorry to be so long-winded, but while I love many bambusa (including B. Textilis Kanapaha), it's too hard to contain and takes up too much of the average suburban Yard. Some of the skinny cane bambusas (clumping --- never plant running bamboo) can also form a quick, tall screening hedge and are much easier to manage.  Most people around here simply run their lawn mowers along the edge to keep their skinny cane bambusa hedge in check (impossible with a big-cane Bamboo).  But the skinny cane bamboos don't get as tall (you need to hide that mansion) I don't get a thrill out of their look either.  They just don't look nearly as "bambooy" as those gorgeous, huge canes on the big bambusas.

Krishna may differ with me on this.

 

If I may add some other notes from my own experiences in Natchez--

I have grown Viburnum 'awabuki'...the smaller leaved, more fastigiate form (I think it's from Korea) is very hardy and never dies back (including this winter at 13.5F) but it gets very leggy in shade and looks like a bare pencil skyscraper if not topped continually under those conditions. The large-leaf form is definitely borderline when you approach the 20F mark. I've had one make it through every winter (I can't remember if I saw it returning just now after this cold winter) in Natchez but the leaves look sickly in Spring and the plant will die back a bit right in that 20-degree zone. But to me it's the most tropical-looking, relatively dependable glossy large-leaf shrub for the Deep South if you can deal with losing it in an exceptional winter. Cuttings I believe are easy so you could always keep a couple of stock plants in reserve for such occasions. But if you want bulletproof in cold winters you'll need to go with the less tropical-looking northern form. Also don't depend on Pittosporum tobira. They of course are a workhorse in general and some in favored positions may survive the worst cold-snaps, but I lost mine this winter. I was shocked to see that. There are some other, hardier species from China and Vietnam that are stronger in the cold but that thrive in the humidity and heat of the Gulf South. You'll have to mail-order those, though.

You might also consider some of the heat-tolerant, lowland tea (Camellia sinensis) varieties from Yunnan, also some of the other obscure Camellia species with large glossy leaves from the hotter areas of China and northern Vietnam. I have had luck with some of them in Natchez and they do very well and look very tropical. Check with Camellia Forest nursery in North Carolina for those subtropical types with large, glossy--sometimes beautifully rugose--leaves (you might be surprised how nice some of them look if you are sick of looking at the old standard species). For some other really good ideas you might want to talk to Eric Schmidt at Leu Gardens in Orlando, he always has something wonderful up his sleeve regarding tropical effects for frost-prone areas.

Re: Bambusa...I agree with what you say but there are some that are not so aggressive or large. I have grown a few in Natchez: I have two large clumps of one of the "blue" bamboos, M. textilis 'mutabilis,' and it starts to get killed a bit below 20F as well. The tips will die first with resprout at around 20F, then in the teens you will start to see complete culm-death. This winter both of our clumps were killed to the ground in Natchez. But they are resprouting. They get very large (30' or so high) and will spread to a fairly wide area (at least a ten-foot diameter at the base after ten years) and if you don't keep on them they are murder to "put back in the box." The underground rhizomes are like steel (maybe more like a massive block of wood and glass since they are full of silica) and you will ruin every sawzall blade you can throw at them. Only an axe seems to work and that is back-breaking. So you have to either contain with strong barriers (pavers won't work) or keep cutting off emerging stems (which will stop the growth of that stem and after a while discourage the plant from growing in that direction). We also have an 'Alphonse Karr' that died back but for a few stems. It makes a good-sized clump, very pretty but not as big as 'mutabilis,' though it still may get large after some years. And though not suitable for screening and If you can live with a seasonal effect, you might consider using B. vulgaris 'vittata,' as crazy as that might sound. I grew it in Natchez for some years before it was finally killed in 2010 in cold, north-facing, soggy soil. It will die back in a freeze but usually will resprout and give you just a few beautiful canes each year, a look that befits that beautiful cultivar...definitely a way to keep it in check.

Also, in re your comments about screening your neighbors...you may have thought it out only from your perspective and not theirs. If you plant a 15-foot plant closer to your pool, yes, it will look the same to you from the single fixed position you have imagined in your diagram, but to them it will look like a dot from their greater distance and you will have to stay hidden behind that one plant if you don't want them to see your bare tuschy when you go skinny-dipping. You'll need an entire row of those 15-footers to stop them from seeing the width of your pool area. A 25-foot plant closer to them will stop their ability to see out over a much wider field-of-view.

You may be able to consider my experiences in Natchez a bit conservative as I think you are really a 9b down there in Houma (downtown Natchez is a 9a) but you still can't discount a northern gouge like the dreaded stairway of high-pressure cells that brought the cold out of western Canada to the region this last winter. I, as many of us, have learned through experience to add a full zone (or more) of caution than average when planning non-herbaceous, foundational landscape elements, due to the high standard deviation in the continental subtropics. Your absolute low will be about 20 degrees colder than your average. Be prepared for it...

Your pool is looking great, and the hardscape/ironwork and brickwork lends a lot of Old Louisiana charm. Are those gasoliers? Please keep those pictures coming. You're going to have a beautiful landscape/poolscape there!

(And please pardon the above verbosity.)

[Tropicdoc]

Never apologize for verbosity. It just means you are passionate about creating a mood with plants. I am the same way. Yes, it will get down to 10 degrees again down here. That’s just part of it. 

I thought about it. Some landscape masters would tell me that I could create a killer landscape with native species. And in my mind I can picture it. Bald cypress, sabal minor, Louisiana iris, trumpet vine, live oak, swamp mallow. But I am creating an “escape” in my backyard- so I can vacation there. If I plant natives that will defeat the purpose.

Its easy for me to take it lightly because I have not had for example a 20 year old palm killed by an arctic front. But, I can look at historical data and see that a ridiculous cold event will happen. Just don’t know when. Hopefully I can take it stride when it comes.

[Tropicdoc]

For the screening wall, I will probably use Loquat (Japan plum) in the most critical locations. I know it grows well here. There are 30 foot trees all over town. Fruit is a bonus. I am going to try to intersperse other trees and shrubs intermittently. I'd prefer to not plant a "hedgerow" because it will look too formal. And I think a huge clump of bambusa screams "tropics"..... almost too much. It may look out of place with the surroundings. Not sure though. It is a delicate balance. That is trying to give nod to old New Orleans, but still lean towards a tropical look- with palms of course.

Just to share- this pool is what led me to Palmtalk in the first place. I have been wanting a pool. And I wanted some "coconut palms" around it. So I googled "coconut palm look-alike" and found Beccariophoenix alfredii. Then followed multiple threads on Palmtalk to learn about the palm. Becarriophoenix ended up being too sensitive to rely on around my pool. But, I learned about all kinds of other palms. Now this landscaping thing is an obsession. Thank you, Palmtalk!