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C6 | Saturday, March 17, 2012 | The Union | Section C

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BY ADRIAN HIGGINS

Washington Post

We are still a week away from theequinoctial start of spring, which is a bitof a joke if you look about the garden:Spring has been quietly raging forweeks. The hellebores are in full flight,the rhubarb has begun to sprout andthe early daffodils are hoofing it off thestage.

Spring doesn’t so much start asgather momentum. Plants are primedto react to a strengthening sun, warm-ing soil and longer days, phenomenathat came early after winter had cut andrun.

A gardening friend said a monthago: “Spring’s here. Hey, enjoy it. Whatelse can you do?”

Well, you could wish it would bideits time so you could get ready for it. Ifilled 15 large trash bags the other day,the result of a weekend spent cleaningup for the new growing season. Onepays for not heeding the earliness. It isdeflating to cut back an ornamentalgrass to find a clump of gorgeous indi-go bulbous irises in clear decline.

Still, it is satisfying to clean up allof last year’s detritus before the greatvernal push signaled by the cherry blos-soms. The work is rewarded with thelook of a garden that is agreeably blank

before the party really gets going.

GrassesGrasses should be cut close to the ground;

the new stems are stirring from the crownbeneath. The more feeble grasses such as pen-nisetum, flame grass and hakone grass yieldswiftly to sharp hedging shears.

The thick, stiff and almost woody big mis-canthus grasses need tougher treatment. I haveused pruning saws, shears and hedge clippersover the years, though I now use a powerfulstring trimmer. This works best if, first, you arepatient. Whack a little and then retreat. Second,have an assistant clear away the detached reedsas you go so you can see what’s left.

RosesRosebushes have all erupted into growth,

but there’s still time to give them their annual

pruning. Remove thin and sickly canes and cutthe keepers back to about 18 inches. Shrub orlandscape roses such as Knock Out can be cutback with less finesse, using shears. Climberscan get a little grooming, but nothing too dras-tic, and big, old-fashioned ramblers should bepruned in June, after flowering.

PerennialsThe trimmer — some folks know it as a

weed whacker — is useful too for making quickwork of the old stems and seedheads of peren-nials such as coneflowers, rudbeckias andliatris, which I leave through the winter to feedthe birds and catch the snow (which nevercame). I also wielded the machine against thelingering stems of verbena and eupatorium,though in a careless moment I removed aplump bud of a woody peony. I probablywouldn’t make it as a diamond cutter.

Trees and shrubsWhat else got the chop? I discovered you

can remove some of the low, wayward limbs ofthe Japanese cedar, using a lot of care withbranch selection and a pruning saw. Thisreclaims real estate at the base of this big, love-ly conifer without making the cedar look as ifit’s raising its skirt.

I just got to the willow shrub in time. It’snamed Hakuro Nishiki, and if you cut it backeach winter the new growth is not only con-tained but pink above a green and whitevariegation.

Any shrub that blooms from July on isgame for a haircut now without upsetting itsflowering cycle, including buddleias, beautyber-ries and abelias.

The chaste tree, more of a lilac-size shrub,gets cut close to the ground each year, to growto about eight feet by the time it blooms in thesummer.

If spring can start early, so can spring cleaning