so i should cut last years pitchers off even though there green except the very top
Its not a question of "should"..its just a personal preference..
And there are two different questions being discussed here:
Question 1. How far to cut them back for winter dormancy.
Answer: it depends..
a. if you are leaving them outside for winter dormancy, then you dont need to cut them back much at all.
because un-cut and green leaves will provide a "boost" when the plant comes out of dormancy the following spring.
b. If you are not leaving them outside, and have to use "the fridge method" or variant of that, then its best to cut everything right down to the ground,
because the plants will be in darkness all winter, they wont be growing, and the excess leaves (if not cut back) could provide a home for mold growth.
I cut my down to about 1" tall, and I bag up the plants and use the fridge method:
Question 2:
Cutting back old pitchers during the growing season..
its just a personal preference, there is no right or wrong answer.
The best thing to do, IMO, is to just cut back the parts that have turned brown and crispy, (and are clearly dead)
but leave any parts that are still clearly green and alive..because those cut pitcher sections
will still provide photosynthesis for the plant and contribute to its overall health.
but..
IMO, its also not a bad thing to cut old pitchers away completely, to the ground, just for the sake
of aesthetics..(even if only the tops have started to turn brown) because there will still be plenty of remaining pitchers,
and cutting back the old ones probably wont harm the plants at all..
So, its just a judgement call..
With my Sarrs, I usually do one "mid-season trim"..
sometime in July or August I will go through the collection and snip away all the older, half-dead or mostly dead pitchers..
just to clean things up and make the collection look nicer..
each plants still has plenty of remaining "newer" pitchers, and IMO this trimming does not harm the plants at all..
(these same ideas pretty much apply to VFT's as well)
Scot