Hi Robin!

The only perennials I have is a lavender bush and some feather reed and blue avena grass. I wait until late April or early May to prune all of them, once they start actively growing. I don't know why, just always seemed to be the "appropriate" time for me. I'll let the folks who actually know what they're talking about chime in now...

Pics of my cut down perennials in February

Hi Robin,

The “correct” answer is—it really doesn’t matter with most
perennials! There really (really!) isn’t
a right or a wrong time for most! Zach
prefers to leave the old foliage on his until spring, but I cut mine down as
soon as I have time after everything’s frozen.

I “live” in my family room, which is on the lower level—just
above grade—of a tri-level and has two BIG windows that look out to virtually
all of my perennials. It’s wonderful to
be able to see, constantly, what’s “blooming now” in summer, but in winter it
looks like a Brown Jungle if I leave the olde foliage on them! One year I didn’t get anything cut down till
early spring and it was just a nasty brown jumble all winter. Ever since then I’ve been sure to get,
especially the tall, obvious stuff cut down early. And I REALLY need Garden Time in winter, and
here in Denver we always have beautiful warm days when I can get out and be
“doing” in the yard! In the last week
I’ve been out in shorts a couple times!
Ahh, Colorado!

Since the recent “switchover,” I’m not posting pics anymore
[unless they get around to letting up post thru our hosting sites], but I found
an old thread that shows my main perennial bed by my back fence, and the strip
of perennials right along the back of my house, in February. Those pics were taken in ’08, but it looks
the same right now! In the ’08 pics the
two things that hadn’t been cut down yet were the Panicum ‘Heavy Metal’, and
the blue fescue, both ornamental grasses that I leave, as long as they don’t get
too smashed down, for winter interest!
They’re both still out there this year too! Check out the thread I’ve linked and my 4
pics are about halfway down! The pics
aren’t clickable anymore, so you can’t make them bigger anymore to see more
clearly! And the bottom of that post is
cut off because of the new, current, length limitations! But at least the 4 pics showing everything
cut down made it!

There are a few things, especially new things if they might
be marginally hardy in my zone, or if they were planted really late but were
still actively growing when planted, that I leave the dead foliage on for a
little bit of “protection.” Dead foliage
can really help “collect” snow around plants, and snow is an excellent insulator,
so if something is questionable, I sometimes leave all or part of the dead
foliage until spring for that purpose.
If they make it fine that year, the second year they get cut all the way
down. Some people mulch “marginal”
plants with a wood mulch (or something else), but I don’t like to cover up the
crown that completely, so I rarely do that.

If you decide to wait till spring to cut them down, don’t
wait TOO long! For things you cut down
in spring I recommend watching very closely for when the new growth starts and cut
them down as soon as they start growing.
The bigger the new growth gets, the more likely you are to damage it
when you’re trying to cut out the old stuff.
That’s if you cut them “all the way” down! If you leave some of the old stems/foliage on
just be sure you cut them before the new growth gets up to the height you plan
to cut at.

I’m some kind of a Whacky Neatnik, I cut mine down ALL the
way, so anything that didn’t get cut earlier gets cut just as soon as it starts
to grow. I just like the way they look
better if all the old brown foliage and stems are gone—and, again, I’m looking
straight out at them all winter! And I
also cut them all the way down because when they start growing again the
following year I want to be looking at only new green stems, I don’t want a
bunch of last year’s brown stems interfering with my “perfect garden” (who am I
kidding!) image!

So try some different things, and see what seems to be
working best for you.

What town are you closest too? I don’t recognize Greenhorn Mountain. And did you used to post on RMG under a
different name before the Big Switch, or are you new here? If you’re new, WELCOME!

Skybird

Hi, Skybird. No, I'm not new. I was Robin4444 but when I tried to post got a message that that name is not available so I added another 4. Thanks so much for your comprehensive answer. We live in the Colorado City-Rye area. Your answer is a great help. And Zach S., thank you also. This is my first post here in the new format. What a bummer if it's hard to post pix. I hadn't posted for a while so I didn't know there had been a change.

Hi Robin,

I remembered a Robin, but I didn't remember the "fours" after it! If you want to go back to the way it was, go to your "bio page" (I'm not sure what it's called now!) and put whatever you want to show as a "screen name" in the "first name" box! Then if you want to add your zone and location (like you can again see for me and Zach), put that in the "last name" box! I had my name "changed" too, and I didn't want to add "_gw" after Skybird, so I was REALLY glad there was a way for "just plain" Skybird to be shown as my screen name again! Also, if you find you're suddenly being inundated by "junk" email, go to "advanced settings" and you can opt out of EVERYTHING! We seem to have found ourselves involuntarily on a "social media" site--but the alternative was that GW was going to disappear from the Face of the Internet! We're not wild about the new format, but we ARE glad we're still here!

Glad you found us,
Skybird

P.S. When you said "south CENTRAL" I was thinking more of on the other side of the Sangres, but where you are shouldn't be all that different from Denver.

For some reason, I just don't trim perennials in the Fall or early Winter. Partially because I just don't like the weather, partially it's laziness, and the other reason is I have read many things about leaving flower heads for birds in the Winter. None or some of this may be right or wrong.

So I am just now, February, cutting back my perennials as we get warm days here and there. Once I get them all trimmed back, I will add new mulch to the beds to neaten up the mess the dead leaves and other stuff makes when I cut back.

Just yesterday I hacked back the Clematis that ate Arvada (as I call it) to about 1 foot above the ground. It seems to enjoy that as each year I've done that, it grows vigorously in Spring. I did notice some green shoots on it already, but I'm sure it will be fine. It still has a lot of leaves around that area that should provide some protection.