To trim or not to trim?

[mabudon]

Okay, I have uncovered my S.flava which are outdoors and spent the winter under pine needles...
I never trimmed off the old pitchers last year so there are LOTS of pitchers with only an inch or two of living tissue and 10-12 inches of dead top....

Needless to say, it looks REALLY ratty, I was wondering if I could chop off everything but the phyllodia to just neaten it up a bit... the flowers are only about one inch up from the rhizome right now, but I'm hoping that this will change soon (I live in SW Ontario, near Niagara Falls which is why I'm still waiting for real progress from them)

Anyone have any input?? Please share what you can, I really want to clean this mess up

 

[Bugweed]

Then clean it up, Mabudon. Trim, trim, trim!! Phil Faulisi says he trims his completely to the base for health reasons. He wants NOTHING dead to help promote molds or fungus. Phil is one of the finest growers I have ever met, so I take his advice! Nothing live ever gets trimmed!

 

[mabudon]

Thanks Bro!! (I have to admit, I keep trying to think up some new forms of yer handle, like B-dub or something, but I promise I'll never actually use them)
Maybe if the sky clears after this freak hailstorm I'll get to it...

Oh, and no worries on not cutting anything alive- I handily killed my first S.purpurea by cutting off what I thought was unsightly, leggy growth (turns out the plant actually needs phyllodia

)
So I'll just cut off the real ugly stuff and everything will be nice and pretty again