Can I prune bamboo to limit its height?
CAN I KEEP A BAMBOO PRUNED TO LIMIT ITS' HEIGHT?
YES! … within reason. Removing the canopy foliage will allow more light to penetrate to the ‘heart’ of the bamboo – facilitating foliage growth from the inside of the clump. The result will be a much denser foliaged plant. The Dwarf species in particular, are highly responsive to pruning, and make excellent hedging/topiary specimens.
There is limits to how much you can remove a bamboos’ height and still maintain good form within the plant. It’s not reasonable to attempt to keep a 10m tall Timor Black pruned to 3m – this is beyond the realm of its’ natural habit and would not be a consistently acceptable option.
It is, of course, preferable to simply select a shorter species!