Be aware that the only truly non-running bamboos you can routinely grow in this country are Fargesias and Thamnocalamus (there rae some others, but they are expensive connoisseur things). If a seller tries to tell you that a Phyllostachys or Pseudosasa or Semiarundinaria is non-running, they are either ignorant or lying. Of course there are plenty of individual cases of Phyllostachys and Pseudosasa being planted and behaving very timidly for many years in this country, and of course none of them has remotely the rampant qualities of the thug that is Sasa palmata. But you can't rely on them staying put.

Thanks for the advice. The bamboos that we have a

fargesia nitida 'Jiuzhaigou'
fargesia robusta
phyllostachys glauca,
phyllostachys aureosulcata f. spectabilis
phyllostachys nigra

The area is about three metres by eight metres with lawn in front and a field fence (and stumps) behind. It's some distance from the house and in a landscape that won't be overwhelmed by the final scale of some of these.

Can I restrain the possibly rampant phyllostachys by kicking down encroaching culms (as I have been told) or is that ineffective? Barriers?

Thanks

Laura