If the rainforest was made of bamboo, I'm sure we would have still lots
of it left. Pruning won't help, but just make it worse. Under the
ground, the rhizomes are exploring the soild in every direction. With
its dense rootystem, clinging firmly into the soil, you'll stand no
chance to rip it out, year after year. You would be left digging out
trenches around 30 centimeters deep. And once under the fence or
terraces, you can imagine the difficulty you will have to remove the
roots.

So, use a proper rhizome barrier, and spend your digging efforts only
once. And I do recommend to visit a specialize nursery with many
varieties of bamboo, it may suprise you what diversity there is, and
perhaps we have a fan added.
Regards,
Pieter

newgardeners wrote:
echinosum Wrote:
Travis is trying to give you more than you need.

I can tell from your URL and your garden that you are in England.
Almost certainly your donor didn't buy them from
"really-obscure-bamboos-R-us", (otherwise they would tell you precisely
what you have) and almost certainly didn't buy a bamboo that would die
in an English garden. There are only about 10 genuses of bamboo
commonly sold in Britain, indeed unless you go to a specialist there
are barely 10 species commonly sold. So even if we don't get the
precise species and variety, we will probably identify it well enough
for your needs. But we do need a close-up of the culms to do that. In
fact even without a close-up, I would punt a guess that at least one of
your bamboos is Pseudosasa japonica, the most commonly grown bamboo in
Britain.

I can tell you one thing straightaway, you almost certainly have
running bamboo. Bamboos come into two basic kinds - clumpers and
runners. There are only two genuses of true clumping bamboos commonly
grown in Britain, Fargesia and Thamnocalamus, (and "commonly" is
stretching it for the second named) and even from a distance it seems
unlikely that yours are one of those. So you have runners. Admittedly
most runners only run fairly slowly in England (so most English sellers
describe all the bamboo that they sell as "clumping" even when it
isn't). But nonetheless before long your bamboo will probably be under
the fence, maybe not this year, but perhaps next year or the following,
whether you put it hard against the fence or at the front of the bed.
So unless nextdoor's garden is solid concrete, you should consider
whether your neighbour will mind having bamboo growing in their garden.
If not, you should think about installing a proper underground barrier
to prevent it spreading that way, and that will be easiest to do now.
You might also want to enclose it fully with a barrier, so it isn't
popping up where the slate scree is.

Thanks everyone for all the advice!

Will get some macro shots sorted very soon.

Re the barriers and next door/slate etc. Can I not keep on top with
regular pruning?


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newgardeners