In the December 2005 issue of Horticulture magazine, local author Val Easton recommends a number of different clumping bamboos. (You should choose clumping rather than running bamboo for your privacy screen, as they will not be likely to invade your neighbor's property.)

Here are three recommendations from her article:
Borinda macclureana - hardy to USDA Zone 7 part sun, 12 - 20 feet tall
Fargesia robusta - hardy to USDA Zone 6, dense erect to 16 feet
Thamnocalamus tessellatus - hardy to USDA Zone 7 upright to 16 feet

You might try the following two nurseries for availability: the Bamboo Garden Nursery and the Bamboo Gardens of Washington.

Season All Season
Date 2007-12-13
Link to this record only (permalink)

The following is an excerpt from the American Bamboo Society webpage.
Click on Frequently Asked Questions to get to the transplanting question, then be sure to click on “this diagram.”

Q. How do I transplant part of a large clump of bamboo?
Transplanting is hard work and involves digging a large chunk of root ball out of the ground. Never transplant bamboo when it is shooting. Dig bamboo either very early in the spring before there’s any chance of shooting or wait for the growth period to be over late in the autumn. You should look for a clump of culms that has come up in the last year or so and which includes at least three or four healthy-looking culms. A good size for the clump would be at least two feet in diameter. Bamboo roots (rhizomes) are tough but must not be allowed to dry out even for a few minutes. You may have to use a very sharp shovel, ax or saw to separate the roots from the rest of the grove. If you will be transferring the division by truck, then water the leaves and roots well, wrap the whole thing in plastic and get it into the ground as quickly as possible.

Season All Season
Date 2006-06-02
Link to this record only (permalink)

Bamboo can grow well in containers, but it can also be picky about drainage, fertilizer and container depth.

Here is an American Bamboo Society article entitled, Planting and Care of Bamboo.

Your bamboo may have a pest or an infestation of some kind. To be sure, you may want to bag a sample of the leaves and take them to a Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Plant Clinic. Master Gardeners are trained in the identification of plants and pests and a host of other botanical subjects. To find out where to purchase bamboo locally, try Bamboo Web’s Domestic Plant and Product Sources. The list is alphabetized by company name, so be sure to check the whole page for local sources.

Season All Season
Date 2006-12-08
Link to this record only (permalink)

My best suggestion is to look at specialist nurseries in your area, or contact your local Parks Department to see if there are any public gardens where you can view other specimens of Fargesia.

As far as the question of whether your plant will die after flowering, here is an article abstract about this subject (which does suggest that the plant will die, but also indicates that this is a time of opportunity to propagate the bamboo).

I also found some general information about propagating bamboo from the American Bamboo Society, the question is reproduced below:

Q. How do I propagate bamboo?

Bamboo is usually propagated by digging up part of a clump of existing bamboo and moving it elsewhere. The vast majority of propagating is done that way and it results in most plants of most varieties in the U.S. being clones. If you divide a bamboo plant and put it in a new location, it usually doesn’t do much for the first few growing seasons. The first two years it puts out roots in its new location and usually by the third year it starts putting out larger culms. By the fourth or fifth years it’s putting out culms as large as that plant ever will in that location, with that much sun and that much water in that kind of soil.

Bamboo flowers only rarely, (sometimes there’s more than a person’s lifetime between flowerings) and when it does, it takes so much energy from the plant it often dies. People try various things to save them, like cutting back the culms and fertilizing generously, and sometimes that works.

It can also be propagated via germ plasm. A small number of cells are taken from some part of the plant and grown in glass dishes. Ordinary people don’t do this, of course. Finally, with some tropical species, it’s possible to bend a culm in an existing clump of bamboo down to the ground, stake it and cover it partially with soil. Be sure to cover several of the nodes of the culm, as that's where it will form roots. Don't let the soil dry out completely.

According the Plants for a Future database, Fargesia nitida flowers are hermaphroditic, and are pollinated by wind.

I found some anecdotal information about propagating Fargesia nitida from seed on the University of British Columbia’s garden forum, shown below: “You can harvest the seed individually by hand. But it seems the best way to know that it is ripe is to allow it to fall to the ground, as they only fall when they are ripe. In order to not leave things to chance, it is recommended that a piece of cloth or a tarpaulin be placed on the ground, and the seed bearing culm be shaken. The best germination rate is when the seeds are sown fresh.”

Season All Season
Date 2007-01-16
Link to this record only (permalink)

Here is some general information on plants for creating a screen.

Trees for Problem Landscape Sites -- Screening from Virginia Cooperative Extension

Good Hedges Make Good Neighbors from the United States National Arboretum

Bet on Hedges by local garden writer Valerie Easton.

Here is a list of narrow plants for a screen from local garden designer Chris Pfeiffer:

Fastigiate shrubs for naturally narrow hedges. Compiled by Chris Pfeiffer. 2005.

Zones 5-6:

American arborvitae ‘Rheingold’ (Thuja occidentalis ‘Rheingold’) 5’h x 3’w

Barberry ‘Helmond Pillar’ (Berberis thunbergii f. atropurpurea 'Helmond Pillar') 6’h x 2’w

Boxwood ‘Graham Blandy’ (Buxus sempervirens ‘Graham Blandy’) 8’h x 1-1/2’ w

English yew ‘Standishii’ (Taxus baccata ‘Standishii’) 4’h x 1-1/2’ w

Irish yew (Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’) 20’ h x 4’ w

Japanese holly Jersey pinnacle (Ilex crenata ‘Jersey Pinnacle’) 6’ h x 4’w

Japanese holly Mariesii (Ilex crenata ‘Mariesii) 3’ h x 1-1/2’ w

Zones 7-9, in addition to the above:

Dwarf yeddo rhaphiolepis (Rhaphiolepis umbellata Gulf GreenTM) 3-4’ h x 2’w

Heavenly bamboo ‘Gulf Stream’ (Nandina domestica ‘Gulf Stream’) 4’h x 2’w

Japanese euonymus ‘Green Spire’ (Euonymus japonicus ‘Green Spire’) 15’h x 6’w

You might also consider installing a trellis to increase the height of the fence, and then growing an evergreen vine such as Clematis armandii, evergreen hydrangea (Hydrangea seemanii), or star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides).

This link is also helpful (scroll down to "Evergreen Vines" and look for appropriate height and light requirements).

You could grow bamboo, but I would recommend growing it in a container, or a series of containers, as you do not want the roots to spread. I have seen an effective bamboo screen between two houses growing in a long rectangular lined wooden trough (lined with bamboo barrier). Some species of bamboo are more tolerant of partial shade than others. Look for a clumping, rather than a running, bamboo (like Fargesia) to be on the safe side.

Growing Bamboo In the Landscape

Running and Clumping Bamboos

Bamboos for hedges or tall privacy screens

Season All Season
Date 2008-01-03
Link to this record only (permalink)

The American Bamboo Society website has information on getting rid of unwanted bamboo, excerpted below. Henon bamboo is a name for a variety of Phyllostachys nigra, which is a running bamboo.

REMOVING A RUNNING BAMBOO

If new shoots of bamboo are coming up all over your yard, it is a running bamboo. To get rid of it, there are four steps:

1. Cut it off.
2. Cut it down.
3. Water the area.
4. Cut it down again.

1. Cut it off. All of the culms (stalks) of bamboo in a clump or grove are interconnected underground by rhizomes (underground stems) unless you have cut them by digging a ditch or cutting a line with a spade. A bamboo grove is usually one single plant, not a group of plants. Many people have the impression that every bamboo culm is a separate "tree."

   If the bamboo in your yard has come across from your neighbor’s yard, separate your grove from his by cutting the connecting rhizomes, which are usually quite shallow. If you don’t, and his part is healthy and vigorous, the rhizomes in your part will still be supported by the photosynthesis in the leaves of his part, and your efforts will be in vain. On the other hand, if you do manage to kill your part with a herbicide you may also kill his part. Lawsuits or at least hard feelings can result.

   Therefore, be sure to isolate the portion you want to keep from the portion you want to kill. Cutting rhizomes with a spade or a saw will do the trick if you do it every year. If the growth is old, you may need to use a mattock or a digging bar the first time. Digging a ditch and putting in a barrier* is a more permanent solution.

2. Cut it down Cut the grove to the ground. All of it. If there is any part you want to keep, see (1).
3. Water and fertilize the area, to cause new growth.
4. Cut it down again. And again.

New shoots will come up from the rhizomes. Break them off or cut them off with pruning shears. Keep doing this until no more shoots come up. This will exhaust the energy stored in the rhizomes underground. Without green leaves to photosynthesize and produce new energy, they will no longer be able to send up new shoots. The rhizomes will be left behind, but will rot away.

That’s all you need to do. You need a saw, a pair of pruning shears, and patience, and maybe a spade and/or mattock. The widely advertised herbicides don’t work well on bamboo, probably because so much of the plant is underground. Since cutting the bamboo down will do the trick, and you have to cut the bamboo down anyway to remove it from your yard, herbicides are a waste of time and money in this case.

The method described above sounds labor--and time--intensive for a large area like yours. However, if you can cut it all down as close to the ground as possible, and then repeatedly mow any new growth, you may be able to kill it. Here is what the USDA recommends:

Eradicating bamboo is accomplished by first removing all top growth, and then destroying the new shoots as they emerge. If the ground is level and the canes can be cut off very close to the ground, mowing is the best way to destroy new shoots. If the ground cannot be mowed, the canes should be cut down and the area plowed to destroy new shoots as they emerge. Several plowings or mowings will be necessary, but the rhizome need not be removed; it will become depleted and die.

This information is from gardening expert Mike McGrath, via a commercial garden supply business, and there is a possibility that his suggestions of sheet mulching the area (also labor-intensive if you have an acre to deal with) or using high-strength vinegar-based products (use extreme caution with these, even though they are 'natural,' as they are still quite hazardous) might help.

Season All Season
Date 2007-10-11
Link to this record only (permalink)

Although I cannot speak to whether there are legal restrictions about planting bamboo (this would be a question for King County Law Library), my hunch is that as long as you take the necessary precautions to control the spread of the plant by installing a root or rhizome barrier, it should not pose a problem. If you intentionally planted an uncontrolled invasive plant at the property line, it might be possible for someone to contend that it was malicious, as mentioned below (Revised Code of Washington):

An injunction may be granted to restrain the malicious erection, by any owner or lessee of land, of any structure intended to spite, injure or annoy an adjoining proprietor. And where any owner or lessee of land has maliciously erected such a structure with such intent, a mandatory injunction will lie to compel its abatement and removal.

The American Bamboo Society has helpful information on how to control bamboo. Here is an excerpt describing barriers:

One other option is to plant your bamboo in pots. Even then, you would need to check the bottoms of the pots periodically for escaping roots. You can also purchase lengths of bamboo fencing or willow fencing, if you do not wish to install a heavier fence. Here is an example of willow fencing, and here is a local company, Bamboo Hardwoods, which has an example of bamboo fencing.

Season All Season
Date 2008-05-07
Link to this record only (permalink)