Well, janea, you're not alone. I'm still confused and I have lived here all of my life.

It depends on the perennial or shrub. A wonderful book that gives you dates for each plant in Southern California is Pat Welch (Twelve Months in the Southern California Garden? Mine has lost its cover so I forget the title).

I don't cut back any tropicals or ferns until mid-April. But I prune my deciduous fruit trees and roses, although I now learn that it is not necessary to prune roses in January here.

Sigh.
Renee

Renee,

Thanks for your thoughts! I looked on Amazon and the Pat Welsh book looks interesting. It does say she is in the Diego area. Can you tell me if she discusses some of the colder zones like my zone 14?

The particular plant that I very much want to cut the dead flower stalks from is my Mexican Bush Sage. I'm also curious about gaillardia, centranthus ruber, and some other's of that type.

I'm still struggling with the rose advice, too. Somehow I find it difficult to strip all the leaves off of my perfectly green, healthy looking roses. OTOH, if it's necessary to spray now with dormant oil spray I can see the necessity. I don't grow hybrid teas, BTW, just some Austin's and OGR's, though perhaps that doesn't make a difference.

I recommend Pat Welsh's book also. She doesn't mention a specific zone that I've seen, but does mention when to do what in valleys, coastal, mountains etc. She is very thorough, you won't be disappointed.
I cut my Mexican bush sage back in late Feb cuz it will take off soon with new growth. It warms up really quickly here.
I cut my roses back in Jan cuz they always look so bad then. I wait until the NW winds in April to come thru then I thin if still needed. The winds always manage to break some.
I get frost at least a dozen times a year and follow the rule, if it's frosted already I wait until March to prune it. If it's not frosted I do it in mid-late Feb.

Hi Janea, welcome to California -- land of evergreens and perennials that don't "die down" for the winter.

When it comes to perennials, you don't really cut any of them "down". You do trim them up a bit during the whole growing season to keep them neat and remove dead flowers.

When it comes to "subshrubs" -- the kind of plant that your Mexican sage is -- you don't really need to cut them down either. The general routine with subshrubs (which includes lavenders, marguerite daisies, Pelargoniums and many more plants that seem to bloom all the time for us), is to give them a light haircut on a regular basis, sacrificing a bit of flower if need be. This keeps them bushy during the year so you don't end up with legginess by winter.

As for roses, you've opened up a BIG door. There's a long thread on this subject somewhere in the California forum.

Joe

Okay, I'm getting the book. :)

I'm curious about your statement: "I get frost at least a dozen times a year and follow the rule, if it's frosted already I wait until March to prune it. If it's not frosted I do it in mid-late Feb." Do you mean if the plant has suffered frost damage you wait until March to prune? Or, if it hasn't frosted by mid-late Feb you figure it's not going to? I'm sorry I didn't quite understand. We've had several frosts already, though it's been warmer than many winters here given what I see from historical data.

Thanks for your help.

Joe,

Thanks for your response. I think it was you that had a mini seminar at the Windmill Nursery in Buellton in Jan? I was so sorry I had to miss it but getting there just didn't work out that weekend. I know I would have found it very useful.

I know I don't actually prune, I mean general clean up, final deadheading, etc. Once again, to pull on my Colorado knowledge, I would let everything go dormant there and not touch it until spring so the dead vegetation would cover the plant roots. But it seems a completely different ballgame here, so when I was advised not to clean up the beds in the winter I became confused. I think I may just go for it and see what happens. It's hard for me to get out and weed while ignoring things that need to be tidied.

I'll look for that rose thread, it sounds very good.

Don't hold your breath waiting for everything to go dormant. Almost none of our common perennials actually go "dormant" here. They're evergreen. To cover my butt -- there may be some exceptions that others in your area grow but they're few and far between.

The point is, "cleaning up" is not exclusively a winter chore. It's something we do all year -- a little at a time -- here in California. Just as I propose with roses and fruit trees and more.

Clean up what offends your sense of aesthetics but don't wait for any big die back before you get out the clippers.

Joe

Joe,

Thanks, that makes perfect sense. I think I was overthinking things, which I have a tendency to do!

Now if I could stop going in circles over the stripping of rose's issue I'll be set. :)

Jane

"I get frost at least a dozen times a year and follow the rule, if it's frosted already I wait until March to prune it. If it's not frosted I do it in mid-late Feb."
Oh it's my rule I created for my area.

What I mean is since it already frosted (not frost tolerant plant) there is a high probability it will again so I wait.
If it doesn't have damage by now its mostly frost tolerant I figure go ahead and prune it, shape it etc cuz by the time I get new growth frost season should be past and can't affect the new young growth.

I agree with Joe on cleaning up all year around to your personal preference asthetics.

You might pick up a Sunset Western Garden Book also.

This discussion of when to remove frosted back plant material always brings back the deep freeze of about 30 years ago that turned all the Eucalyptus forest on the Oakland hills black. It looked terrible and the political entities,county and cities, kicked around who was to pay for removing all those dead trees. They dragged their feet so long the Eucalyptus all recovered on their own. Al

Al, that's so funny- started my day with a laugh.
thanks,
min