Phylostachys nigra Jekyll and Hyde

Any ideas why sometimes the black stemmed nbamboo behaves itself perfectly and sits in one place being a nice big clump like it says in the book, and other times why it goes crazy, sending out long hard snakey rhizomes like there's no tomorrow. When I split a piece off from a well behaved clump and planted it somewhere else, it did the crazy thing. Could it have been the stress of transplanting that caused this behavioural disorder?

Hi Jonnie, Phyllostachys nigra is a running Bamboo. The only way to control it is to grow it in a container or sink some deep sturdy edging on the border of the garden it is in.
If you are looking for a Black Bamboo that grows in a clump try Bambusa lako, 'Timor Black'; it is not hardy though.

Aloha, Dave

Thanks Metrosideros. It clearly does run but it is interesting how it seems to behave differently in different situations. Three container grown plants that I planted about 17 years ago have expanded into a fairly large clump but haven't travelled. A piece I chopped out of the clump a couple of years ago has established really well but is sending off rhizomes up to about 2m long in a year. The well repected RHS Encyclpopaedia we have in the UK describes it as a clump former; saying that it does spread by rhizomes but usually not in cooler climates ( I'm about zone 8b). I remember reading somewhere before that it was moisture stress that made it 'go looking' elsewhere. I'm wondering if may be the stress of me hacking it up with a spade and moving it changed its behaviour.

Phyllostachys nigra 'Nigra', has been a trouble-maker in my garden. Several years ago I placed a large container of it on the ground cloth (plastic) of my nursery; it sat for many months and didn't seem to be doing anything. Then one day I noticed a sprout coming out of the ground by the cloth, about 15 feet away from the container!
The plant had gone down out of the pot, through the ground cloth, and out the side of the nursery.

Here is a container of it that I pulled out of the bushes by my nursery three months ago. I thought it was long dead. Every week it seems to throw up a new shoot, since it has been in the sun!

Phyllostachys nigra 'Henonis' is the worst weed on East Maui. It has displaced the native forest in large areas from Haiku to Hana.

Wow. That is amasing. P. n certainly does have the devil in it.... or an admirable determination to succeed in its mission. Its really interesting to hear about how plants behave in different places. I shall certainly look at P.n. ' Henonis' in a different light now