bamboo: the end of our garden (and the neighbour's)?

Some 10-15 years ago I bought a sweetshoot bamboo, phyllostachys dulcis, hoping to eat the shoots. This proved impractical, but it grew nicely and provides a very good screen. Over time it has spread, and is slowly becoming intrusive. You can cut off the offending shoots, but the roots stay underground, for instance making it impossible to hoe. Luckily the neighbour likes it .....
Does anyone have experience with this plant? Is it likely to flower in the future, and die naturally? Or should we have a good go to get rid of the roots where they become intrusive?
And can you give away to replant any shoots you dig up? It is an expensive bamboo to buy.

 

@Annemieke , the gardeners dilemma , how come an intrusive plant like bamboo is so expensive to buy ? I don't understand . I only have one clump forming dwarf bamboo in my garden , hopefully someone on here will help you control your bamboo .

 

I agree with JWK,

Either put in a barrier.

Or take a spade and slice off the rhizomes.
If you want to establish a new plant from these, try and have at least 2 canes on the rhizome. And trim off about 1/3 of the leaves.

 

It's only this particular one which is expensive I think, because it is supposed to be very good for eating. However, keeping the soil weed free and digging up the shoots just when they are ready and before they're getting too old (in China they walk the ground barefoot so they can feel where they are going to be) was a bit much for the meagre results. But if anyone from here fancies a piece and is prepared to come and dig some up, you're welcome!

 

Bamboo tend to be expensive because although they can be quite rampant in the ground, getting them to a sellable point is time consuming.

Say you have a pot of the Phyllostachus.
You can cut that into say 4 pieces absolute max. Maybe 2 or 3 is more realistic. Each piece needs 2 maybe more canes to have the energy to get established. The more canes, the more likely and quicker it is to get established, but the more canes, the less sales plants you will have.
Then each one needs a decent sized pot, with lots of soil, plenty water and fertiliser.
It takes probably 2 years (maybe more) for the plant then to re-establish itself and start growing again.
For decent sized specimens, you are going to pay £40, maybe more, depending on species, rarity, size etc

If you compare this to say some perenials.
They get tissue cultured in their hundreds of thousands.
And their growth is a lot quicker. Probably a few weeks to months under ideal conditions.
My garden center sells them for anything from £2 to £8 depending on the species and size etc.

 

its the time to grow them on to be "big enough" to have decent sized culms in the pot to make the punters want to buy it. I'd be happy to buy them in 9cm pots (well, slight exageration! but whatever size they are in Year 1) and grow them on myself, but I never see them sold like that. I have bought several off eBay where they have got "too large" for the current owners. I pay the nursery price (£30 or so) for a clump, but I get a much more mature plant than the nursery sells ...

I think (short of putting barrier in) it would be worth digging a narrow trench around the plant, and filling it with sand. This would make it easier, in future years, to do the annual "rhizome pruning" thing