by James Alexander-Sinclair
Do you have an autumn clear-up in your garden? Do you cut down all your herbaceous stuff so that everything is tidy for the winter or do you leave everything until the new year?
Do you have an autumn clear-up in your garden? Do you cut down all your herbaceous stuff so that everything is tidy for the winter or do you leave everything until the new year? Most people nowadays leave it until later to give food for small birds and so that there is something to catch the frost.
However, some plants are looking pretty appalling and are best chopped down as soon as they're passed their best. This was brought home to me the other day, as there is a rodgersia by my front door that, for most of the year, is a picture of lushness and leafiness. Suddenly it has been transformed into something that looks as if it has been sat upon by an obese hippo. It has to go.
Clients often ask me when they should cut plants back and my answer is usually "when it annoys you". If a plant is still standing proud and looking good then it can stay; if it is looking a bit exhausted or has collapsed into a soggy lump then it's time to answer the siren call of the compost heap. This weekend Crocosmia 'Lucifer' and all the hostas are taking the long walk.
By all means leave as much as you can but keep looking and selecting. The autumn clean-up is not a matter of manically chopping down everything now but of slowly and steadily editing things out through the season. Which plants you cut back depends so much on personal taste and weather - lots of rain or heavy snow tends to make everything go 'flumpf' earlier (flumpf is, of course, a well-known horticultural term describing the process of plant collapse). It's tricky to give a comprehensive guide but, in my garden, I would never touch angelica, Ligusticum lucidum, achilleas, verbenas, fennel or all grasses until they had completely surrendered to the elements.
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