Hmm,
The ABS website says Bambusa is a tropical and semi-tropical genus, and B. oldhamii's minimum temperature is 21 F. My AVERAGE winter low is 15-20 F, so I think that an average winter would kill the leaves. I'm not sure how often we would have a winter that killed the whole plant. And I'm pretty sure that a 55-foot tall hoop tunnel would be beyond my skills!
I'll think about a very sheltered spot, but it would break my heart to lose the whole plant every 5-10 years. Too bad, because even a young plant ought to have usable culms if the adult has 4" diameter ones! "Giant timber bamboo", in truth!
ABS defines their minimum temperature as "a one-time brief minimum temperature that can be tolerated with only leaf loss in well established plants on a calm night, ...".
