This is mondo grass along the bottom, knockout roses along the middle row and Evergreen clematis vine on the fence. It is important to not cut back the mondo, but cut the roses back by a 1/3 or 1/2 their size. The clematis vine was about to burst with blooms so don’t touch.The trick is to make sure that the you trim the liriope before these new shoots get up. If you get the ground cover cut back by mid to late February, then these new shoots are small enough that you can use string trimmers and not scissors. As you can see, they are looking pretty raged. They are green during the winter, when most everything else is cut back, but be sure to get pruning them back on your calendar before spring gets here.This year I was able to use a weedeater because I cut before the growth came up. Only cut back to about 3-5 inches. No need to go lower. You stand the risk of injuring the new growth, which that cut and rip will stay on the new growth until next year.
