Monty’s month
You can leave your garden untouched from the planting of the last tulip in November to the end of January without any ill-effects, but February is a month in which there is much to be done and much to delight. Snowdrops, iris, crocus, the first daffodils, hellebores, camellias, hamamelis and much else is flowering. There are seeds to be sown indoors and pruning and planting to be done, too. However, one of the most dramatic of all the February jobs is cutting back the grasses in the Grass Borders here at Longmeadow. By now, they are beginning to look slumped and battered by weather and it is a job to be done either before the new growth appears or as soon as it is visible. Only the deciduous grasses, such as miscanthus, molinia, or calamagrostis can be cut back hard, removing all top growth, whereas the evergreen grasses like stipa, festuca or anemanthele should merely be combed through to remove any dead material.