Bamboo: What to do?

The bamboo in my Budapest garden was a gift from a friend many years ago. I have controlled it and it has behaved itself for the most part. It arrived at 2 meters in height, but over the years it attained 8 meters, with new shoots growing an average of 10 cm a day in June. I was able to select the culms that I wanted to keep and cut others. I shredded them to about 2 meters so that they could be lit from below and looked less heavy. The play of light of the stalks was beautiful. However, this year, they showed a change and dropped many leaves in spring. To my surprise, I found them in full flower by mid June. I had given a clump to another friend who lives 10 km away and his was also in flower.

​After researching online and calling both the UK and US for advice, I decided that they would die by the end of the season so cut 2 clumps down but left one for experimentation purposes. I found the phenomenon of the death of a bamboo forest intriguing. According to one blog, a forest in India is doing the same this year. Could it be that this forest is related to my bamboo? Did the Raj who hunted here in the late 19th century bring it as a gift? According to what I found, the death of any given variety happens worldwide on the same year, and the lifespan varies according to the species. Lifespans range from 30 to 125 years. Time will tell what happens, but a few new shoots have come up between the remaining clump and one that I cut down. We will have to wait and see.