How do I repot my bamboo?

Bamboo experts! Help! Bamboo flowers?

• Hello , I moved to a condominium in urban California and my small back yard has lots of bamboo trees. Yesterday, I found strange things going on and they were bamboo flowers. While I was researching about rare and infrequent bamboo flowers, I found bamboo trees will die right after they make flowers and will cause mass production of rodents. As soon as I read that article, my excitement about bamboo flowers turned into nightmare.Could you kindly help me on my questions? Here are my questions: 1) Is it true that bamboo trees with flowers will die eventually? 2) Will bamboo flowers in my backyards attract rodents? if so, how should I protect my backyards and my condo? (It's multi-family community... I don't want to be blamed by other people. :( ) 3) Should I remove all dead bamboo trees and add new ones after bamboo trees dead? Please help. Thank you.

• Answer:

  Bamboo that flowers almost always dies, but fortunately, the flowering cycle is usually about 15 years--you have to replace bamboo about as frequently as you replace a roof or a hot water heater. The bamboo seeds create rodent food, and the massive fall of seed casings into dying bamboo culms creates ideal rodent habitat. Remove the habitat, and you won't have a rodent problem. After the main seed fall, get rid of the debris, and take out the dead culms to avoid rodent issues. The bamboo will most likely re-seed in the soil loosened by removing the old culms, if you water it.