DON’T cut them back before winter. This was a demonstration garden in New Mexico. Everything was dormant, but not boring. The ornamental grasses were spectacular.

I mentioned a house earlier that I enjoyed the landscape of. It had lots of ornamental grasses. I drove by one day and was horrified to find they chopped all the grasses down. They lost a whole season of potential beauty from doing so.

Some grasses can flop because of wind and snow load, etc. But what’s the harm in waiting until they actually look bad to cut them back? It might actually push some gardening into winter, which I don’t think is a bad thing.