New to gardening and prune happy???

[superschwein22]

Hi Everyone, I just recently bought a house that had no garden whatsoever and I immediately started getting into it. I still pretty much have no idea what I'm doing but before I even read up on a lot of things I cut back a lot of perannials when I thought they might have been done. Now, I keep on hearing from people that leave their plants untouched until after the winter is over. Which is the right way? I cut back my day lillies and Iris, as well as my Asiatic Lily and also the Hibiscus shrub and Coneflower.

[OROZCONLECHE]

I'm to scare of pruning the plants because as soon as I do by a month they all die, I have bad luck, but if your house has no garden why not do a raised bed.

[superschwein22]

I am actually planning on doing that at a different spot. I have quite a bit of space and want to minimize the lawn space.

[rainbowgardener]

I'm with Mg, although different gardeners do have different styles. I cut perennials like daylilies, hostas, iris, mums etc back to ground level once they are fully dormant. As long as the leaves are green, they are still collecting energy to help the plant for next year, so as Mg said you don't want to cut them back until they are done, all yellow and droopy. The iris I cut back to short fans.

[superschwein22]

Thank you so much for your advice. I think it's very confusing to go by what it says in gardening books because they all seem to contradict each other and my husband tells me to just leave everything as is so that's not much help, lol. I really have no idea whatsoever what I'm doing and am really anxious to see what happens next spring (hope I didn't kill everything, lol).
So, it seems I really didn't cut too much down at all. I am relieved to hear that.

[rainbowgardener]

As long as you were cutting back dormant leaves and stems of the perennials, not green stuff you didn't kill anything. Their life cycle is to die back and hunker down for the winter and then send out new sprouts in the spring. As I said, different gardeners (and gardening books!) have different styles, and some people leave things over winter. Over time you will find your own style, but I agree with Mg that leaving the dead foliage provides habitat for a lot of different insect pests and diseases and cutting it back and removing it to compost pile, helps keep your garden cleaner.

But cutting back woody shrubs is a bit different from cutting back perennials, because it is not in their nature to die back like that every winter; they just go dormant, but keep their wood. When you say Hibiscus, I'm assuming you mean the Rose of Sharon? I think it is the only one that would be hardy for you in MA; the regular hibiscus is a tropical. RoS does not need to be pruned at all. But if it is well established, it is a tough, hardy shrub that will survive hard pruning. Cutting it back some in the fall will help keep it more compact, if it is tending to outgrow the space it is in (they do get quite large). But I wouldn't cut the RoS back to the ground like you do the daylilies and stuff.