You could consider Fargesia utilis, or Yushania anceps if the site gets some shade; these two would get 10-15 feet tall. Another possibility is Yushania alpina, but it might get a little more than 20 feet tall.

Thanks!

One of my favorites is Thamnocalamus crassinodus 'Aristatus'. It's about 10-12 ft. Powdery blue culms up to a few inches apart, does best with a little shade.

Are you growing Borinda boliana in San Diego? I am in Pt. Loma and thinking it may be right but would like to talk with someone who already has experience with it and our leaf margin frying and alkalai water.

The Borinda boliana did nothing for 7 months, while all my other bamboo has been shooting. I had to cut away 1 or 2 culms that looked really dry/dead. However, I just looked at it this week and I noticed 1 shoot coming out of the ground which I was super excited about. I looked at it again yesterday and now there are 10 shoots coming out of the ground. I'm not a bamboo expert but it seems to be pretty happy now.

brownmola-
It always takes a while for a bamboo to establish itself before shooting -- sometimes a couple of years -- so that sounds like very good progress.

Thanks Kudzu. It's hard to be patient knowing how fast they can grow, but I guess that is part of the excitement.

A bamboo that didn't shoot every year would be dead or otherwise severely inhibited. Happy bamboo starts should triple the culm size every year, from the start. Where you normally see culm size falling off markedly after planting (despite otherwise favorable circumstances) is when small divisions are taken from a much larger specimen. These cannot produce the same sized culms at first because they no longer are part of a large plant with its larger energy supply.

I also wonder how Fargesia utilis etc. might do in extreme southern California - esp. if the intended planting position has no shade.

bboy-
I have to respectfully disagree with your description of how fast bamboo increases in size. I've found the old saying: "The first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, the third year it leaps" to be pretty accurate. Some of my bamboo do a little better than that, but most are on that schedule. Also, a tripling of culm size each year is also not typical behavior, and since every bamboo species has a natural height/diameter limit, tripling would result in hitting that limit in a couple of years. I'm not trying to pick a fight...but that's just not my experience, and I'm in a Zone very conducive to bamboo growth.