Ceanothus? These have a reputation for promptly dying after being moved.

If you were going to attempt it, now - or when you soil is not too wet for spading - might be a good time but I'd treat it as an experiment even with a younger shrub. I attempted moving one once, or helped a neighbor move hers...It turned into something that looked like a scrubby tumbleweed in short order.

I agree with Mor - these really resent root disturbance or attempts at transplanting. They grow fast and are relatively inexpensive - it may be simplest to just remove, discard and replace with a new plant in the desired location.

Thanks..... I think, in that case, I'll let it fight it out with the bamboo. (It sounds like the ceonothus will lose, but che sera, sera!)

As a group comparatively short-lived, fast-growing chaparral shrubs not growing and persisting well were trees and taller shrubs overtake them. The most seen locally native (Seattle area etc.) species has a tendency to appear near parking lots and roadways, where there is a permanent source of hot air and freedom from being overtaken by trees.

One I saw at an overlook above a developed flatland some years ago was basking gloriously in the hot air wafting up from the rooftops and parking lots below. Last year when I went to look at it again I found a nearly dead pathetic stick in its place, a thick of Douglas fir seedlings having popped up on the embankment and shaded it.