Hi
I have a few Oldhamii planted within a couple of feet of the common boundary fence. I want to make sure they don't go next door, so I was wondering what options I had to limit their footprint. Would digging a trench around them work? Or would the new rhizomes just follow the decline of the soil (it works for running bamboo).

Cheers

A trench should work just fine for a clumping boo like that. A now non active member posted two or three years ago that he uses the square cement pavers around his boos to keep them from crossing boundaries....

I'm on a phone, so I can't search for a link for you, perhaps someone else has it handy, or you can find it via search... anyone remember if Roy posted that as a thread, or was it a post in another thread?

Here's the thread.

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=711

Thanks for the link.
It talks more about encouraging growth on one side via keeping one side dry. In my case this would just direct the growth one way, but I need to constrain the entire width of the clump - which appears hard to do

Do you do any culm thinning out or have you left the clump alone?

I maintain (restrict) my Oldhamii clump to only a 6 - 10 of the largest culms. I only remove mature culms that are 3 or more years old. I remove new shoots that are smaller than the larger culms. If a new shoot comes up close to my neighbor's fence, I will remove it with my Sawzall.

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Heard any news from the ABS SoCal chapter?

Killing shoots won't do it. The rhizomes will go under those right into the neighbor's yard. First, if my neighbor was growing Oldhamii, I would tell them "bring it on", but some "unawarians" like to take the fun out of boo. I'd say just a long, straight, deep rhizome barrier.