If you haven’t already done so, you’ll probably be joining other Iowans in switching off your Christmas lights for the season, leaving folks with little to look at outside that has any color or interest. If your snow-covered landscape looks too barren, you can’t do much now, but horticulturist Bob Hendrickson suggests -next- autumn, you leave your perennial plants in place, especially things like tall ornamental grasses. “Folks often ask, ‘When is a good time to cut those down? Can I cut them down in the fall or in the spring?’ and we always say you want to keep them up all winter long for interest, something to look at rather than a blank slate,” Hendrickson says. “Not all plants are created equal. Some look more interesting than others.”

Hendrickson says many of us are tempted to hack down those grasses when the growing season ends, but he says to resist the urge and let them stay. “They’re adaptable, they’re tough, they add a lot of movement to the landscape, backlighting and all of this cool stuff with grasses,” he says, “but, they really stick out and shine in the wintertime.” They may not add a lot of color, but leaving those perennials in place over the winter will serve an important purpose, as they’re a good habitat for certain pollinators.  “A lot of our native bees are solitary and they overwinter in the hollow stems of plants,” Hendrickson says. “People have actually observed these bee balm stems, which are hollow, cutting them back and seeing bees emerge out of the stems in the spring.”

He also suggests leaving plants with interesting seed pods in place, just to make the landscape more visually appealing during the dead of winter.

(Radio Iowa, w/Thanks to Karla James in Omaha)