I suppose that any plant can be "maintained" at a certain height if you are willing to amputate its new growth and destroy its natural form. There is also a theory that you can stall the growth of a shooting culm by either removing the branch sheaths or breaking off the lower branches when the culm reaches the desired height.
The ultimate height of Phyllostachys nigra will depend on what part of the SF bay area you are in (more heat = more growth), and how much water and fertilizer, if any, you use in summer. In good conditions, the culms can get 50 ft. tall and 3 inches around. In cooler areas, the plant tends to stay smaller and the rhizome necks will be shorter, causing a more compact grove. There are also some specific clones that are reputed to stay quite small.

Thanks for the reply. I live in Fremont. I guest temperature wise it is kind of in the middle in Bay Area.

Sounds like I should trust what the nursery says (10 to 15 ft)?

Jun

Most of Fremont is within one of the warmest mesoclimates in the Bay Area. There aren't any pat answers; so much depends on other variables: soil compaction and fertility, volume of soil within the containment perimeter, summer watering, etc. I would be prepared for rather stout growth as time goes on. It could get to be a monster.

If it gets enough regular water and is in good soil, I would expect more like 20 to 30 foot as the ultimate height for Black Stem Bamboo. It will also look better if it doesn't get blasted by full day or western exposure hot sun, which will tend to bleach out the trunks. There are other selected forms such as 'Henon' and 'Bory' which can get up to 50 feet tall, but these are not as commonly seen or sold.

Regular P. nigra only grows to 30' high maximum. The cultivar Daikokuchiku (Big Black Bamboo in japanese) can get to 50' high. 'Henon' is said to be the mother species of P. nigra and it never gets black. 'Bory' will get black spots on the culms, but never totally black. Bamboo Giant Nursery near Santa Cruz has the Daikokuchiku under Giant Black. They have an impressive mature clump at their nursery.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bamboo Giant Species List

Wow, the expert advice is stupefying. My two cents: that root barrier won't work. We planted black bamboo in a cement planter that was built-in.

It ran under the sidewalk to the front bed, then UNDER THE STREET to the neighbor's front bed. Yowza.

Wow. That sounds like a really scary story.

Some other people told me not to worry about such stories. Now I am really not sure who to listen. :)

BTW, plot_thickens, how tall does your black bamboo grow? Do you wanna to sell me some? They are *very expensive* at my local nursery.

What are some good sources for purchasing black bamboo around SF?

You can try keeping a running bamboo from spreading out by keeping the area around it DRY and cutting/digging out runners around the edge of the clump/grove on a regular basis. I would just put the bamboo in container, above ground. This will add some instant height too. The runners can follow water or other positive conditions all over the place though...good luck!

Huh,I never would have guessed it can grow that large.The few clumps i have seen weren't much more than 12'. Just average care does that i guess.
The Dry Garden Nursery is the only 'sure thing' for finding them short of a Bamboo nursery.

Foothill junior college in Los Altos has a wonderful collection of bamboo maintained by the Northern California Bamboo Society. The climate is similar and the garden only about a half an hour away from you. Why don't you go over there and take a look at all the different bamboos that grow in your climate and pick the one that is closest to what you want in the end. These are all mature very established plants. I think the society has bi-annual sales where you could get plants fairly cheap.

Here is a link that might be useful: foothill bamboo garden

We had black bamboo planted about 7 yrs ago here in Vallejo (morning sun, mostly) and in that time it grew to 20-30 ft. We've since removed the bulk of it but still have about an area of 8' by 2' which is still growing. We are trying to get rid of all of it, so if you know anyone that wants to remove it. It's quite beautiful, but not fitting in with our current yard plans.

Mine is in a 15 gallon pot and is over 6 feet tall. I got it from a neighbor who had a hard time removing it. It was torture work for him digging it out of the ground. As I recall, it was at least 10 feet tall and he tried to restrain it by limiting the water. The bamboo was cracking his walkway. Mine's not happy in a 15 gallon pot. It wants a larger one. It got tall very fast and needs daily watering or the leaves dry out and look awful. Well watered, it's a beautiful plant. I like it best in 1/2 day sun. It hates full shade and starts to die off. I think what I need to do with mine is split it into 2. What I like about growing it in the 15 gallon pot is that I can move it around and the height is nice behind other tropicals. It provides welcome shade where I want it. The dark color sets off the green leaves and is showy. I think it's worth having but I know I don't want to have to dig this plant out of the soil ever.

We had golden bamboo in a wine barrel, on cement blocks. Area around it was not watered but one day we noticed this thing coming out of the bottom and moving across the ground towards a water source. My neighbor had giant and it went under his house. It is a very aggressive grass!!!

Our neighbor planted some beautiful black stem bamboo in their back garden. It quickly sprung up in our backyard. In just a few years we had two full stretches of bamboo that provided complete privacy along our fence. We did nothing to care for it but it grew tremendously fast and beautifully. We've just removed about 25 stalks that are 25-30 feet tall.