With the winter season approaching the cooler weather can bring on changes for your planting beds. Here are some tips and timeframes for cutting back your plant material.

In October and November, with the first freeze of the season, you will begin to see the deciduous plants start to die back. The leaves and blooms will brown and wither. This is the time to begin cutting back these leaves and branches to clean up the plant. All of the new growth for these plants will begin at the base and grow out with new leaves and blooms in the spring time.

Starting in January, it is the best time to begin trimming grass plants. Once trimmed, the grass plants take on a ball-like shape for the winter and remain this way until spring. This helps clean up the plant and allow for space for all the new growth to emerge from the ball of the plant.

January is the best time to cut back roses. Cutting them earlier than this could promote growth before hard freeze and this could damage the plant. And cutting too close to the spring could lead to trimming off new growth that has just grown.