Happy to say we had a mild winter and the new Horsetail is doing wonderfully. What do i do with the little wirey growth of the old shoots that never seem to do much but look thin and tangley? Do i trim them off to let the beautiful new shoots take centerstage? Any advice would be appreciated.

I have a pot of this stuff in my pond and have been wondering the same thing. Mine is just sort of overgrown with old and dead stems. I could thin out the older or damaged shoots but was wondering about just trimming it all down to the same level. Then just have the new growth.
Hopefully someone with an idea will come along.
Helen

My experience is that most horsetails come back up again from the deep rhizome no matter what you do to the top, but sometimes it comes back thinner and more spindly. There are a lot of species, though, and some variation in behavior. The one we have around here, for instance, travels long distances under the ground, and taking it out in one spot can make it pop up again ten feet away.

I think I will experiment with mine and clean up the ones with the long wiry growth. It will look better without it, I think.

Here is my rush after trimming all the old growth down low. The new growth is pretty and uniform. I think its pretty. I also put a small pot of creeping jenny in amongst the rushes and it has crept up out of the water.
One of these shots was done at night with the flood light.