Best Place to Get Black Bamboo

I am new here and excited about this group. I would so love to get a Black bamboo plant for a 15 gallon or so container. I know there are many places that one can purchase them but so many times these look more like very young still more "grassy" than thicker. (yes I do know that it is actually a grass, but would just LOVE to get a grouping of more maturing culms. I have to have them indoors since I do live up north (North Dakota) I would give about anything to live someplace where the stuff grows like crazy! Well, Thanks so much for your time, and for my wordiness! I am so glad to be on here. THANKS SO VERY MUCH FOR ANY ADVICE OR THOUGHTS!!
Mark

Hello Mike, Glad to have you. Did you have a look at Aaron's Nursery they sell a number of root clump sizes starting at $29.00 minus shipping.
Your posting is interesting keep us up to date good luck, here is the link.
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NO NO NO! NEVER buy from anywhere in that part of Georgia!!!!!
I have heard WAY too many HORROR stories of TYTY Nursery there...

Oh, and to assure you "Aaron's Farm" Aaron's Bulb Farm" "Aaron's Nursery" is a rip-off...look here:

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And:

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Notice the similarities???
DON'T get ripped off...

The only place that is reputable and gotten good feedback in that part of Georgia is:

paradisepalmco.com

Google how bad TYTY and its feeder companies are, and you will be shocked...TYTY is divided into many companies...

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Taylor[Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...][Only Registered Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]

I am delighted to have these responses! Even if they are different from one another. I don't have the extra money to be very "chancey" so the risk factor is good to factor in. I have had pretty good experiences with Wayside, but have not order the bamboo. Primarily due to the price tag.

It is great to hear the different thoughts. I also appreciate the "heads up"
Thanks again
Mark

Thank You as well, I did not know about these companies, and I did google them and found more than I wanted.

taylor, Well I'll be darned. I never knew this. Great Post.

Hi Mark, you didn't say what gardening zone you are in but when I looked it up I was surprised to see how cold it gets down there!

I'm guessing you are in zone 4 - ish.

Note that there *are* bamboos that will survive planted inground in a zone 4 climate.

Even more temperate ones can be grown as an herbaceous perennial in that they will die back above ground in the worst part of winter but will come back again next spring as long as the rhizomes underground are not killed which is pretty easy to accomplish even in climates that are way below their rating with a big thick layer of straw or snow if you get a lot there.

Phyllostachys nuda is not black but it's a beautiful running type of bamboo (as is the Ph. Nigra, all Phyllostachys are runners and the most cold hardy of commonly available bamboo in North America). Ph. Nuda is rated by some as hardy in zone 4, but worst case scenario is that it will simply grow back next season. This is not necessarily a bad thing with bamboo as it will be bigger each year up to it's final adult size in the final year (which will be shorter in your climate most likely) and bamboo is pretty unique in that it grows each culm (stalk) to their full height potential for that year in just a couple to three months in spring.

If it were me I would even experiment with the less cold hardy types and use special protection over winter just to see what I could get away with but I'm a crazy zone bender who used to live just off the Alaska Highway way up north where it get's around as cold as what you probably experience there.

If you are more interested in growing indoors then a whole different world of bamboo opens up to you because you're looking at more tropical type bamboos since the temperate ones require a cold winter they don't like it as much indoors all the year round. That goes for the Black Bamboo you were asking about originally since it's a temperate in the Phyllostachys family.

Here is a great page of information on growing bamboo indoors from the American Bamboo Society, it has species recommendations by height from 20 feet down to 2 feet:
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If you have a huge house with ceilings the height of let's say an airport terminal then you could go really big:
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(not my picture but one of my favorite indoor bamboo installations and it gives you an idea why you have to be careful which bamboo you choose to grow indoors)

That ABS society web site also has a source list on their website organized by state (ND is not on the list but a local nursery might be able to bring in anything you ask for, particularly if they are a large nationwide chain ).

Let me know if I can be of any further assistance, bamboo is kind of my "thing".

Sorry Mark I passed over one of the most important things you mentioned. You can't think of bamboo like you would trees or other types of plants. Initial size isn't the same thing as it is with other types of plants.

You *will* want to buy what looks like grassy and small. Black bamboo to be specific can grow to as high as 30 feet in 3 to 5 years.

Mature bamboo doesn't travel well, it's difficult to transport and adult mature sized bamboo, it requires a truck with a long bed, careful moisturizing of the leaves and rhizomes and sealing them to prevent any drying out and most of all a very short distance to take it to and immediately replant it in the ground.

Bamboo takes a few years to reach it's maximum potential, how it grows is each year the new shoots come up a little fatter and much taller than the year before until by about the 3rd year it's starting to reach full potential if all it's growing needs are met.

Culms (individual stalks) never grow any larger than their size they come out of the ground at when shooting. This makes for some pretty spectacular looking things on the giant timber bamboos, big fat shoots the width of your leg coming out of the ground all at once and growing as much as a foot a day in height.

Bamboo is not commonly sold in very large sizes just because of the logistics. It's not like a tree, it can grow to mature size in 3 years so there's no major benefit to getting a larger one right away.

So when you buy a 1 gallon with spindly little culms you will have those same culms until the next season when new shoots will come out that are fatter and will grow taller etc.

In other words there isn't much benefit in getting anything larger than a 1 gallon size because it will multiply and grow bigger on it's own once it has the proper root mass very quickly.

There's no harm in buying a larger one but that just means more root mass which will mean more shoots, it doesn't necessarily mean you will get larger culms faster, just more of them which is more of a consideration for outdoor planting than indoor.

There is one thing to watch out for though, some unscrupulous online sellers are selling just the rhizomes on their own with no culms growing out of them. This can work fine but it has to be done at the right time of year. Once spring has passed into summer the roots are not capable of putting up new shoots so you have basically a dead root on your hands since it has not leaves to feed it over summer. If they are just about to shoot in early spring this can work but to be safe I'd just stay away from them entirely.

Get a small potted one with growing culms and leaves. If it's for indoors I wouldn't at all hesitate to get a tiny pot like a 4inch or 6 inch if that's what's available. It's far cheaper and they grow so fast it can be scary if you are not prepared for it.

John, I cannot tell you just how much I appreciate the wealth of info you conveyed. I wish I could talk with you at length. I have purchased 2 or 3 of the bigger bamboo books that seem to be sold by quite a few places. I got them on Amazon for quite a bit less.
I enjoy many of the tropicals, and live in about the world's worst place to truly enjoy them to the maximum. I have always seen the black bamboo pictured, and have thought it seemed (to my admittedly inexperienced eye,) to be sort of the "coolest" looking of them.

I am in zone 4, some maps say, and a few say that I am in 3. Likely NOT worth struggling to figure out exactly which, since what it really translates to is the zone from hell, as relating to growing what I would so love to grow.

That means I need to use containers for most everything. I have a couple of Kumquat trees, a Sago "palm" a couple of banana plants, some Hibiscus (almost entirely because my wife likes those so much.) Two Chinese fan palms, one of which is doing fine, the other barely struggling along. (I would so love palms with a decent trunk that I could have in a large container.)

I have recently aquired a Stromanthe Sanguinea (sorry, I do not even think there IS a common name for that.(perhaps I just don't know it))

I also had about 8 Majesty palms (Ravena Rivularis) for about 3 or 4 yrs, then got scale, did not know what it was, and ended up losing them all. What OJT (on the job training) and a sticky mess) that was. It was actually heartbreaking for me. My kumquats got scale from that also, and I am still dealing with that.
I have not had time yet to look up in better detail the specifics of the bamboo you wrote of, nor have I had time yet to go to the referenced sites, but even before I do I just wanted to take time to express my depth of appreciation for your time and effort!!! You will def hear from me again, if I haven't bored you to tears already. Thanks again!
Mark
Fargo, North Dakota

You're entirely welcome Mark. Sounds like quite a tropical menagerie you have going there. I used to live way up north in a climate not too far off what you have there. I grew up on the west coast and was never really happy living on the edge of the prairies in such a cold climate (back on the west coast now). I did everything I could to green up the place. Built a small "tunnel" greenhouse out of plastic piping and greenhouse covering, filled it with grapes, citrus of various kinds, supermarket mango grown from pit (that I still have to this day) and about 5 electric heaters to keep it all alive as far into fall as possible before bringing it all inside.

What I've always wanted, then and now, and something you could probably use as well as a giant solarium room built on to my house. At least 20' by 20' with glass all around. I'd have an indoor fountain, all manner of citrus and tropical plants, maybe even a smoke hood and a barbecue.

Just have to start buying lottery tickets I guess.

Cheers!

P.S. thanks for mentioning that Stromanthe, never heard of them before, now that I've seen it, it definitely deserves a place in our tropical garden if I can track one down.