ALL NEWBIES ....

wait until you see where it greens from.. then start pruning... no matter what others here tell you ...

in 20 years or so... you will know .. ahead of time.. where to prune....

I KNOW YOU HAVE THE FEVER.... the hardest months of the gardening year.. are the transition from winter to spring... YOU CAN DO SO MUCH DAMAGE.. just put down the tools... and walk away .... clean up fallen sticks.. fallen leaves.. AND MAKE PLANS .... but do nothing for another month or so ...

and try to stay out of that fluffy moist soil... you have better odds of turning it into adobe by summer from repeated compaction.. than any good you can do walking thru sodden soil ...

frankly.. in z6.. you should be 'acting' on this the first week of MAY .... NOT MARCH!!!!!!!

KEN

Ken, Ken, Ken, get a grip. I'm in zone 6 and have begun my garden work with a vengeance. I'm already two weeks behind because of the snow. There's still some on the ground, but spring is about to burst here. As the snow melts off the hellebores, the buds are already 4 inches tall, and bulbs of all kinds are pushing through, with some in bloom. The shade garden needs to be cleaned up, the pruning needs to be finished, and the grasses need to be cut back for starters. Then ASAP the perennials left standing need cleaning up and the beds edged. If I waited another two weeks, much less May 1, the garden would be lost.

Penstemon is a huge genus with many different plants. Without further identification, I would suggest waiting until you see where the new growth is coming from, and make your pruning/cleaning decisions based on that.

Give it some more time and wait for signs of new growth emerging. When you do, then you can make the appropriate cuts to get rid of the dead stuff. This warm weather is making all of us itching to get out there and do some gardening, but it is only March 9, give the plants a chance to wake before assuming the worst.

Karen