Best Time To Cut Your Ornamental Grasses
If you live in climates where your perennials go dormant in the winter, you may be wondering when is the best time to cut your ornamental grasses.
Why Cut Them
When the cold season approaches, the grasses go dormant in the winter. They go brown and leave behind the old growth from the active part of the season. They can still look pretty good, and will add a bit of curb appeal to your landscape when everything else is gone. Keep them in tact throughout the winter and cut them down when spring arrives.
When To Cut Them
There are two types of ornamental grasses. Cool season grasses grow in the early part of spring, and again the fall. They maintain great color throughout the summer and won’t grow much when it gets hot. Cut these back as soon as possible at the beginning of spring. As early as when the snow finally clears from the ground.
Warm season grasses won’t begin to show any new growth until mid to late spring, or even later into summer. Late spring, like March through April, is the ideal time to cut types of ornamental grasses back.
Don’t worry if you missed the window for either of them. You can still cut the dead blades down any time before the new growth begins to take over.
How To Cut Them
Cut the brown, dead blades from cool season grasses down but leave about 1/3 of the plant remaining. For the warm season grasses, cut those closer to the ground. Take some twine and tie it around the entire bunch of grass, then use garden hedge shears to cut them down. This allows all the blades of grass to stay together in a bundle for easy clean up and haul away.
