We had a bamboo plant in the garden and have got rid of the main bit of plant and thought we'd got rid of all the underground shoots but some are now starting to shoot up from various areas of the garden.

Two are emerging out from inbetween the slabs in the path - is there any way of killing them and getting rid of them without lifting the path and/or digging over the whole garden? ( really hoping the answer is yes!! ;) )

it is very difficult to get rid of

You have to keep cutting any new shoots off as soon as they appear.

Keep doing this until no more shoots come up. This  exhausts the energy stored in the rhizomes underground. Without green leaves to photosynthesize and produce new energy, they will no longer be able to send up new shoots. The rhizomes will be left behind, but will rot away.

Sometimes it can come up in your neighbours garden the rhizomes travel undergroud away from the plant and come up somewhere else, you can dig up, but if you break the rhizome or leave any behind they will keep reappearing.

We had to get a digger in and excavate a very large hole and then burn the plants, then turfed the area and now because it is regularly mowed there has not been a sign of bamboo for a while - we are hoping it works.   The other way is to paint the cut off pieces with roundup which should also kill the rhizomes, but I would think would need doing a few times.

Ooh and to think i love the stuff and wanted it planted in my parents garden all those years ago.. Now i know why and i defo won't be putting it in any garden of mine :-)...
Looks great but obviously looks like you live with it, forever and ever :-(

Yes, it is beautiful, elegant, architectural, evergreen and makes a lovely rustling sound when the breeze stirs it.

I still have some, but in a large pot, with a large piece of concrete underneath, so the roots do not escape, and come up somewhere else.  And as I often forget to water it in the summer it just sort of ticks along, and does not grow too big.   Although there are various dwarf varieties, but again put in a pot.:)

Thank you for the handy tips - we've cut off all the shoots that we can see and then weed killed where we have cut them. Will keep fingers crossed that this works - even if it needs doing a few times it'll be worth it!

We had some invasive bamboo that a neighbour had planted (and them moved house). After a few years it flowered - then it died, which is what bamboo apparently does.

If you are going to wait for it to flower - then die, you may be in for a long wait :).

"Although some bamboos flower every year, most species flower infrequently. In fact, many bamboos only flower at intervals as long as 60 or 120 years. These taxa exhibit mass flowering (or gregarious flowering), with all plants in the population flowering simultaneously. The longest mass flowering interval known is 130 years, and is found for all the species Phyllostachys bambusoides (Sieb. & Zucc.). In this species, all plants of the same stock flower at the same time, regardless of differences in geographic locations or climatic conditions, then the bamboo dies. The lack of environmental impact on the time of flowering indicates the presence of some sort of "alarm clock" in each cell of the plant which ................."

Luckily it was only about 10 years for ours. :-)

When we first moved here there had been a large patch in the wood, the old woody pieces were still there, but the main plant had died, which I could not understand at the time, now I know, it most probably had flowered then died. :)

It is a great looking plant but so invasive, have not tried the dwarf varieties, ours was about 15ft tall.

We had ours in a very small area of the garden which was surrounded by paving and against the wall of our house. We never had a problem with it spreading (its one of the ones with the variegated stem). Two years ago we lifted it and put it in a large container but it didn't get enough water and died back. We moved it, cut it right down and now it has some green shoots again. I love it but was advised by my gardener ( my mother :-D) to keep it in a very small area. If you are near a zoo you could always offer it for the pandas :-D

Having lived in a house with Japanese Knotweed in the garden I can well understand your frustration Sugar - we didn't even know what it was but we could not get rid of it at all - glad it was in the days before you had to notify buyers if it was in your garden.

Some types of Bamboo are clump forming & not very invasive - you need to do a bit of research before you plant but should be O.K. if you pick the right one

Sugar have you thought of potting on the bits you take out & selling them? Bamboo is very expensive to buy! I got mine half price in Homebase and put them in pots. I didn't realise they could be invasive (chance would be a fine thing here with rabbits, deer & the pony eating everything) but I have checked under the pots & so far the roots are still contained.

or advertise it as free to collector-bring a pickaxe!
its expensive stuff someone might be feeling energetic!

ooh , now i'm liking the selling idea! If the weedkiller doesn't kill them I may try that :)

Can be used if you plant it in a tub or confine it in say a concrete planter.