Here's a few shots of mangy-lookin' grasses that need a little spring clean-up. (Also Spiderpants Coupey, svelte-ly and subtly keeping company with the gardener.)
Some ornamental grasses, like the semi-evergreen blue oatgrass/Helictotrichon below, just require a good hand-combing at this time of year. This grass will release dead brown bits as easily as...a cat sheds fur...leaving a nice crop of live blue blades.
Other grasses, like the tall and wavy maidenhair/Miscanthus or the short n' plumey fountain/Pennisetum grasses (no pics available) look even more brown and broken this time of year because they die back to the ground in winter. You can't tug away the dead stems--you have to cut everything back to within about 4 inches from the ground, and let the new shoots emerge from the base.
Some grasses that are usually evergreen here in mild-wintered Vancouver actually suffered freezer-burn in the sudden frost last November. I usually don't have to cut back this big swath of Carex 'Ice Dance'--but I did this year.
Unfortunately, I don't have an "after" shot (it was probably pouring rain at the end of the day). I did shear it back into little green and white variegated hedgehogs. Looks funny for a while until it resprouts (unless you like hedgehogs) but better than a bank of dead salad. (Those are bunches of 'King Alfred' daffodils coming up through the 'Ice Dance.'
Those are the only recent & random grass pics I have--hope that was helpful.
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