So far, I have not seen any signs of flowering on my P bissetii or any in my area, or any other Phylostachys I have for that matter.

How did it die? I don't think P A alata flowered, at least mine has not.

That's different. I don't know of any critter that would do that around here, are there locusts in your area, or some kind of big beetle? Maybe you could point a close focus camera on it and see if you can spy the culprit(s).

I'd try adding some more nitrogen fertilizer. One of those water soluble ones like Peters or Miracle grow should produce quick results if it works. Dye would not have occurred to me, but I guess if it is taken up by roots it might work, though I'm not sure why it would be.

Agree that cutting out and adding fresh soil is a good way to go. On smaller bamboos like Fargesea I have used a sawsall with a long demo blade. With bigger groves a chain trencher works well, either way it is easier if the culms are cut down first, of course. If one uses a small machine like a mini...

Here is an F Jiuzhaigou, it tops out at around 7 ft, and has spread slowly like the denudata. IMG_0815.JPG Below are two types of F rufra; The first is F rufra "green panda" about 20 years in, is around 8ft H x 12 ft wide. The second are 3 "sunset glow" put in about 15 years ago,...

Here is my denudata, it took several years to get to height of 7-8 ft, has not grown any taller. These maples have grown in a lot since then, I think I'll move it this fall so they don't choke it out.
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They don't tend to run much deeper than other running bamboos. If soil is fertile and loose enough all the way down to bottom of the barrier, they may try to grow under it. But if bottom of barrier is in less fertile and compacted sub soil, they will likely remain near the surface.

I've put in some plantings like this at customers' request. In the short and medium term growth is pretty normal, in the long run, they do tend to get rhizome bound. When this happens, the bamboo tends to keep putting out new culms, but they tend to get thinner and grow at less than maximum height. ...

In my limited experience with Phyllostachys flowering, the young non flowering "survival shoots" that came up on periphery of the grove survived, and eventually regenerated the parts of the grove where they were allowed to, as well as a couple of new groves where they were transplanted. An...

In my experience, your best bets would be P bissetii and most P aureosulcata varieties. P vivax will get killed to ground any time it gets to -15C (5F). I'm on an island supposedly in USDA plant zone 7A, which is not supposed to get that cold, but every several years we have a freeze event with gale...

I think the seeds have to be ripe, so probably not green. Perhaps just at the point where they can be shaken loose from plant. Bamboo seeds don't seem to stay viable for that long, so waiting until plant is fully dead and dried out might not work that well.

Well, I never did get to trying predatory mites this season, actually, the vendor seemed kind of skeptical that the ones they had would live/work in my area. The leaf damage is not as bad as last year, but there are obviously still a lot of mites around. The migratory Robins are returning to my grov...

I've successfully germinated seeds from two flowering events, F nitida & P arcana, but seeds were planted in growth medium and taken care of. One flowering event I witnessed and got some plants from was Phyllostacys flexiosa. There did not appear to be any growth from seeds, but growth from youn...

I seem to recall that F robusta got close to full size of 9 or10 ft tall after 6 or 7 years starting from a 3 ft cutting. This was in a sunny location with some fertilizer and regular watering for the first few years. Mine all was killed to ground in a freeze event in zone 7A, the one I left in plac...