Am I the only one? Please tell me I’m not the only one.
Looking at the bright side of this thus-far virtually snowless winter, since Christmas I have been, gulp, trimming back shrubs and perennials that I didn’t get around to in October and November. Yikes. It’s embarrassing to admit.
But it feels so good! I don’t think I will ever be so far ahead in the springtime as I will be in 2012. It makes me happy–really happy–so if you have been wondering if it’s OK for the plants, wondering what the neighbors think, etc….don’t! Get out there and trim away! The only shrubs to avoid pruning would be the early, early spring bloomers such as lilacs, azaleas, and forsythia. If you trim them now, you’ll cut off the flowers for spring. And depending on your point-of-view, you may want to skip pruning your ornamental grasses so you have some winter interest. I trimmed some that flopped over with the icy conditions we had back at the start of December and left others that were still standing tall, such as the Karl Foerster Reed Grass. Happy pruning…in January!
