Are you sure, it's not a fake one?
Can you ask, how many Years it's been outside.

Lori,...go check it out!
Konrad

Hmmm, I hope it's not the "bamboo" I bought as a novice gardener, which turned out to be fallopia japonica - I forget the common name, but this is very hardy and also very invasive. Obviously not a problem in a planter in downtown Calgary though!

About your heart skipping a beat, I wouldn't hold my breath, especially if it is black bamboo, and ESPECIALLY in an esposed pot above ground. I just went out and looked at my Fargesia(bamboo) here in zone 4a and in the ground. Leaves are actually still supple, although brown and curled on itself, making them look kind of like big needles. This Fargesia is rated two zones colder than black bamboo, and there is no hope for these leaves as evergreen.

My best guess is that it IS bamboo, even black bamboo, but the restaurant buys new each spring for the effect. Every day on the way to work I drive by a 10-16ft(3-5m) palm, depending on the year. Of course it doesn't have a prayer in our winter climate. The owner of the company(not a restaurant) replants every spring. Very nice because he gets different species each season.

Rick

My guess is that it's a summer ornamental too... just like (ironically) the cedars in planters that get replaced each year by various restaurants and businesses. Unless something comes up tomorrow at noon, I may swing by and take a look...

Reminds me of my neighbor. She bought two palm trees and kept them in pots on her deck for the summer.

I thought to myself "why not?", she got them for around $10 each and you pay more for those pre-planted hanging baskets.

FYI:
http://www.bambooworld.com/

It's a canadian seller of bamboo. They have several varieties that survive -30C.

Thanks Mitanoff,
like this one:Arundinaria gigantea ÂMacon clone  Macon Rivercane
rated for minus 33 C. Native to USA
But I think this is a small bush type??, haven't checked it out.

By the way, thinking about bamboo...
The Calgary restaurant that had bamboo in its planters last year (and it certainly looked like a bamboo last winter), has an entirely different plant display in them this year...strongly suggests to me that the bamboo did not winter...

On another note, I really intended to make an order to "Bamboo World" out in Duncan, B.C. this spring but never did...however, a local greenhouse brought in a couple of types of bamboo so I eventually broke down and bought one - Sasa tsuboiana 'Green View' (trademarked, no less). According to the "patent holder" (Bamboo Select), it's supposedly hardy to -30 C. We'll see... The other one the greenhouse brought in was a Pleioblastus species (don't recall which).

Hmm, the best case might be the worst case. That is, if it survives, I suspect I'll come to regret having let it loose in my raised bog bed, LOL! Oh well, I have until next spring, at least, to figure out a method of restraint...on the slight chance that it is eventually needed.

No bamboo will maintain live canes through the winter in Calgary. One might get lucky with the rhizomes surviving the occasional winter with lots of consistent snow. Even in southern Ontario, the hardiest bamboos remain evergreen only in the warmer parts of southwestern Ontario (& Toronto)...the rest start from scratch with new culms every spring.

Good grief, this is a 10-year old thread! No, Sasa tsuboiana was not hardy here.

As a substitute, consider coyote willow (sandbar willow, Salix exigua) It has very bamboo like leaves, about 5 inches long and 3/8" wide. It has no problem surviving in a reasonably large pot. It needs a nearby water table to thrive. One way to grow it is to use half of a plastic rain barrel, and put drainage holes 6" above the bottom, put 8 inches of coarse sand in it, and normal potting mix above that. Protect the holes with pottery shards so that the sand doesn't wash out.

The willow will look ratty after a few years. It's their nature. Whack off just above the ground.

There are a lot of willows that are happy in pots in our climate.