When we moved into our house, my Wonderful Husband insisted that he had to bring along his black bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra). Now, normally I am very understanding about bringing all your plants along when you move since I’ve done it for years. But, this was bamboo – nearly a cuss word to us native plant lovers. Bamboo is invasive (I’d heard); bamboo takes over your entire yard (I’d heard); bamboo is a Communist plot (I’d heard).

After much discussion, to put it mildly, I agreed he could plant his precious black bamboo at the corner of our property, where there is a road intersection. I figured the bamboo would have to stop when it ran into the asphalt. Besides, it would have to compete with the Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) which, because we’d just moved in, we hadn’t even started removing yet.

At that time, the light bulb hadn’t gone off above my head about the importance of soil quality. Having said that, even if I knew then what I know now, I still wouldn’t have tried to improve the soil before we planted the bamboo. Truthfully, I wanted it to die.

Summer

The first summer after the infamous bamboo planting, my Wonderful Husband diligently watered the black bamboo, just a few half-brown stalks about knee high. I chuckled silently to myself, thinking the bamboo was a lost cause.

Unfortunately, it began to grow and even sent out three or four small culms. Drat! That winter was much colder than usual and to my great delight, when Spring came, the bamboo leaves were all brown – killed by the cold. Imagine another evil chuckle.

We had to cut down all the dead stalks and I stripped the leaves off them. I’ve got enough bamboo poles for the entire Duggar Clan to go fishing. But, guess what? The roots were still alive and sure enough, a few more culms appeared.

Current Day

Fast forward about five years; in the Black Bamboo vs. Autumn Olive War, the bamboo won. Partly because we cut down almost all the Autumn Olive since I hate Autumn Olive even more than I hate bamboo. The bamboo has created an impenetrable thicket at the intersection corner, but it does a nice job of screening the intersection from view. It occasionally puts up a culm too close to something else, but all I have to do is stomp it down or cut it off with my pruners.

What advice can I offer you about black bamboo? #1 – don’t plant it. #2 – if you ignore #1, plant it where you want a privacy screen and you don’t mind it spreading. #3 – the younger stalks if weighted down with snow or ice will bend and stay bent over, continuing to grow that way. Strong winds will do the same thing. #4 – the stalks start out green, it takes two to four years for them to turn black. #5 – some folks recommend burying a barrier to keep the bamboo contained. We didn’t do that and so far, it hasn’t starting attacking the asphalt.

I have to admit that so far, it hasn’t been as bad as I feared. Whenever my native plant friends come over, I just make the excuse, “My Wonderful Husband planted that. Goes to show how much I love him.”