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Live in New Mexico, USA in the middle Rio Grande Valley on the high desert (5,000 feet) at zone 6/7 between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Have only 8 inches of rain a year and 300+ days of bright blue skies with no clouds at all. Have an acre along the Rio Grande. Water is about 5 feet under the soil, so don't have to water trees and most shrubs. I dig pits for most of the bamboo, so I can fill them with water once a week. I dig the pits down a foot and then fill them in with peat moss, compost and leaf litter after the bamboos are planted. For bamboo along a fence line, I run a soaker hose. I have about 100 bamboo plants, all Phyllostachys sps. So far, none of them run where I don't water. Conditions are not optimal for bamboo but the species I have are all thriving, although none are as tall as under better conditions. We also have a nice pond on the property with a water fall. Most of the acre is shaded by large deciduous trees, so it's (relatively) cool in the summer and (relatively) warm in the winter.