There's a quite sedate, smaller slower growing form of cattails which is a pleasant choice for the 'look' of cattails, Graceful cattail. Typha laxmanii. Slower spreading, easier to rip out.
Grows about 3' tall, The rhisome grows less than a 1/4" thick.
By comparison the brute latifolia, the rhisome may be 2" thick, growing 8' tall, spreading x20 by rhisome alone.
Year one, one plant, Year two, 20 or so,Year three, 400....
8,000... 160,000 (kiss your lake goodbye)
Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l42/adavisus/
