cutting back perennials
do you mean to cut back all perennials to the ground? I am afraid i am going to lose them.
Doug says he gets this kind of question regularly.
The vast majority of plants (with the exception of lavender and dianthus) are cut to the ground in the spring if you didn't do it in the fall.
Frankly, if you have winter, the plants are going to look really "dead" anyway after the winter so simply cut them back and move the debris to the conpost pile.
This includes grasses that are normally left in place over the winter.
Cutting back will not kill the plants after the winter. It may enable you to identify plants that have winter-killed but the actual pruning of the plant in the spring will not kill it.
