...not over here catkin, no, not really, well I don't....in fact this was on Gardener's World last Friday with Monty Don showing us how he just combs through evergreen grasses with his hands and pulls out the old stuff... that's what I do too.... but also, as you describe, I might trim back the lengths if they've spread a bit too far...I do this with Stipa gigantea... my evergreen Festuca's I just comb through these...as with Deschampsia 'Tatra Gold'... my Uncinia rubra which is evergreen, I just cut off any old flower stems... the foliage is just too good all year... or at least it has been these past few winters...
...as for my non-evergreens, I cut Miscanthus back a while ago to ground level as well as my Pennisetums, and my Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster' will be cut down this week... Hakonechloa was cut down some weeks ago too...

..the only evergreen grassy plant I sometimes cut right down is Liriope muscari as it looks so tatty at the end of winter... depends how big the plants are and I've got rather a lot of them.... I keep telling myself...''they're out''... but still they remain...

...otherwise, I don't have that many grasses, so that's just about it.... be good to hear what others say on it...

I cut down Carex and Liriope in early spring every year, which are the only ones that I have that are evergreen, as well as all my other ornamental grasses.

I have a couple types of small Carex, but no evergreen grasses other than the lawn. To tidy them up once they emerge from the snow, I just pull off by hand any dead foliage since I figure it needs those leaves to get going in spring.

I use an old plastic comb. I cut back HELICTOTRICHON s. 'Sapphire' (Blue Oat Grass) and regretted it most of the spring and summer. The plant never did look right: it looked barbered and it missed it's early bloom season. Here I find new carex leaves grow and cover over the old without any interference from me. Combing seems to remove the ugliest of the dead leaves,

Same. For the blue oat I use a small rake to comb the dead out. Many grass blades are sharp so I prefer raking to my hands. I also cut down the broad leaf carex (Ice Dance) since it tends to look ratty.

CMK

I go back and forth about blue oat grass. Sometimes if I do the combing technique I'm still left with a lot of old straw-colored leaves which dilute the blue effect. I just cut back two that will spend the summer in containers, in hopes to get a flush of new, blue growth. We shall see if that was a good idea or not.

I have a few evergreen grasses, I spruce them up by running a dog comb (metal teeth) through them. pulls out most of the ratty looking stuff.

Annette

Thanks everyone!
I have tried combing with my trusty blue Atlas gloves that I run through the wash when they need it. (Reference to that great Garden Tip thread!) But I don't get much. Like Karin said, the blues are washed out looking as are the brown grasses.
I did cut some of the thin brown ones and left some, too. I guess I'll leave the Festucas they're in the far corner where I don't have to look at them much! Maybe it's too early to groom them? I'll experiment!
Ken, I always read your posts like Haiku...LOL Thanks!

you guys.. are way over the top.. combing out your plants.. lol ...

but all the power to ya.. if it makes you happy ...

thx kat ... i think ... lol

ken

Ken dear. I don't comb my hair because it's too much trouble. And anyway, that's what hats are for. So, if I comb a grass, believe me, it's because I have found that it is less work than any other method.

Don't I look pretty? I've just been combed :).

A regular rake will work but when you are fine cleaning leaves etc from around plants anyway, a hair pick is handy, does it quicker and more thoroughly. Stipa tenuissima definitely looks better raked, its good to rake out the seed heads in late summer when they start looking ratty, you end up with a big globs of the fluffy stuff and reduce seeding about. Many cool season grasses are better raked as opposed to cutting back. If you cut back they will sometimes look like chopped off bad haircuts for a long time, especially mature specimens. I decide based how any given one looks as to whether to leave alone, rake or trim any dead tips or sometimes dead leaves laying flat on the ground around the edges.

If a cool season grass looks good, I wouldn't consider trimming it or if a warm season grass is evergreen growing in mild winter areas like California, I wouldn't trim those either (many people write in asking that on the O.G. Forum).

If the whole grass has dried up dead leaves in spring-- dead is dead-- trim it low. Often its good to do some dethatching on the cut 'stump' to give new growth some room, sometimes I decide its better to divide it.

I always trim back warm season grasses here in zone 7, except for the some of the muhly grasses which you can do every three years or so.

If you are growing grasses from seed its good to trim small grasses back about half to encourage tillering which means more roots and thicker plants sooner.

'A hair pick' never thought of that, better than a dog comb.
Annette

Yes, Ken, that was a positive comment--you're starting to grow on me--no pun intended!
Nina, you're a hoot!
AM, that's darling!
Tex!!! You've been a stranger, glad to see you and learn from your wealth of knowledge on grasses.
I use a pic for my hair....hmmmm....Thanks everyone

The rabbits did my grass' (liriope) hair for me... in the way of a buzz
cut! They look terrible, sometimes I wonder why I keep them around with
the carnage inflicted upon them every autumn.