Cut them down. They will reshoot from the base if they are hardy in your region. (I believe they are).

Both the plants you ask about are herbaceous perennials. As such, unlike shrubs, all the top growth dies back come Winter and you can cut it back at a time to suit you and your climate.

Phlox paniculata is one of the few plants I cut down as soon after they've been winter-killed as I can, so in future years I would cut yours down earlier. The reason for this is that tall phlox are more prone to powdery mildew than most plants, and the spores overwinter in the old vegetation, so you want to get rid of the previous season's plant matter to help this season's plants stay healthier. So cut them down ASAP and if they had disease issues last season, don't put the trimmings in the compost, throw them out instead.

give them a bit more time ... and then take the time to go out there.. and study them ...

look for the new buds .. and then prune just above them ... but in many cases.... its best to go down to the lowest two or 3 healthy buds ...

this is a general rule.. for just about any perennial ...

some.. if left tall ... will bud up near the top ... and then later in the summer .. will fall over.. because they werent meant to be that tall ... hence why we usually go low ....

it doesnt hurt.. this early in the season ... to give them enough time to bud out... so you can check it out ... rather than guess...

in my MI .... many things die back to snow cover ... and then i just remove the dead stuff above ...

ken

I'm not sure I agree with the above advice. Herbaceous perennials - like the phlox - die back to the roots in winter. It does the plants no harm (and is actually beneficial, as old stems can harbor insects and diseases) to cut the old stems off at ground level rather than waiting to see where any "buds" may appear. Generally, old flowering stems do not produce any buds - they are dead - and any new growth will emerge directly from the root crown.

This advice is only for herbaceous - die to the ground in winter - perennials, not for semi-woody perennials or subshrubs and not for those few perennials that are considered evergreen (like some euphorbias, hellebores, bergenia, etc.). They are handled a bit differently.

Exactly, this is a herbaceous perennial. There won't be any buds on those stems. They're dead. All new growth will be coming straight out of the ground.

Personally I leave some old stems precisely because they do harbour insects. Hollow stems are a Ladybug favourite. But that's just a matter of choice.

jeez ladies ... i was giving her a general rule for how to look at plants.. and figure out how to do it ... as compared to running to the computer with each plant ...

and in a few weeks.. she will see the buds breaking down low.. and will have no qualms about taking off their heads ...

and she will have learned something .. in a more general sense .. in essense.. she wont need to know which plants are herbaceous perennials ... she will just know which to cut down ...

ken

GG and I both explained how a herbaceous perennial is different from a shrub. The top growth is completely dead in the winter. It's easy to see and there would be no need for her to run to the computer for every plant. Sending her off to look for buds on the stems of herbaceous perennials, on the other hand, would be a waste of time.

If you just grab all the old stems and cut at the base with your pruners there won't be anything to pick up. You'll already be holding the dead stuff.

If there are just normal winter leaves from surrounding trees on the bed you'll need to assess the situation yourself depending on how many leaves there are and how advanced the bulbs are. If the leaves are not very thick on the bed I'd just leave them alone. From the picture I'd just leave the leaves where they are. There really aren't rules we can tell you for this kind of clearing up activity. It's your choice how to proceed.

In which case just leave them where they are. What I would do, though is delineate clearly where the edge of the bed is. At the moment there doesn't appear to be any edge and grass is growing into it. You need to weed out the grass and make and maintain clear cut border to the bed.

I leave the stalks of my phlox so that I can see where I planted them. Just yesterday I removed the canes since all the plants have leafed out, and it is obvious where they are.

I do not think that I have any phlox that bloom on the old canes. I appreciate the comment about powdery mildew because I had never thought of it overwintering, and holding the disease.

When I removed the stalks, I cut them so that their removal would not disrupt the newer more delicate plants.

Sammy

'I do not think that I have any phlox that bloom on the old canes.' You won't have. Phlox paniculata is a herbaceous perennial which means that, by definition, it dies back to the ground in winter. There are no P paniculata which bloom on old canes. That situation is only possible in plants which retain a permanent framework of stems throughout the year such as shrubs. So there is no need to worry about losing next years flowers if the plant you are dealing with is a herbaceous perennial.

Not getting blooms, 2nd yr. what's up? pinaculata...

One would assume that you aren't giving enough sun if you have no blooms. Simply put the plant isn't making enough food to produce flowers. Unless you're growing in pure sand with no nutrients, it has to be sun.

PS you would do best to start your own thread and attach a photo to it.

Depends where you live... Mine are 10+ years old, healthy... But no blooms yet either. Maybe it's just not time yet. Do you have anything that looks like buds starting to form?