I believe cutting back the foliage for outplanted bulbs have no meaning. It does not help the bulb or the flowering. When your bulb is planted out and has the outside environment surrounding it, it will grow you harder, even super hard leaves. I experienced it with my bulbs. So it will be different from the ones kept in pots. If you want to cut back on your amaryllis, you should probably just clean up the distorted, ugly leaves. I wouldn't touch it if it is evergreen. It knows when to bring bloom and it takes care of itself with plenty of hard and healthy foliage. I'd be happy to have the foliage as long as possible.

You will probably want to dead-head and/or trim back in Fall any types which reseed heavily. Things as the black-eyed-Susan and coneflowers. If these are left, you may have an overabundance of volunteers. Many perennial plants are trimmed close to the ground line. If there are leaves which survive the winter, then just trim out the dead flowering stalks. Damaged foliage can be trimmed as new foliage takes over. The Russian sage might be pruned more for shape and just have dead material cut away. That might be best done in Spring. I don't trim mine to the ground. Will cut back hard some branches if they mess up the overall shape.

Frank, After reading your OP, I think you are definitely talking about daylilies, since you said you already cut down the stems (which are called scapes on the daylily plant.) Since you still have foliage growing, you indeed have daylilies. If you cut true lilies back to the ground you would have no foliage left, since the foliage on a true lily grows from the lily stalk. As was mentioned by daylilydayzed, daylilies do not grow from bulbs - only true lilies do. True lilies should be trimmed (after blooming) so that 2/3 of the stem is still standing. Then the stalks are cut back to the ground in fall, after all foliage turns brown. But your question is about daylily foliage, and I'm getting off subject. It appears to me that different people cut back their foliage at different times, depending on their location/pest problems/disease problems. Here in my zone 5, I leave all daylily foliage on the plant throughout the winter, because it helps insulate against freezing temps. I rarely have pest or disease problems, so I'm not worried about the dying & browned foliage surrounding the crown. In the Spring I try to remove as much of the dead foliage as possible. However, if I don't get around to removing it until the following Fall, (because of my own laziness), the plant doesn't suffer ill effects. the new foliage finds it's way through the old dried up leaves just fine - it just looks unsightly, if located in the front of a border/garden. Julie

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.