Trimming pampas grass

[RevoltingPeasant]

We moved into a house in Devon in May and it had pampas grass in the front which I've gradually come to love in spite of its associations! It's so cheerful and screens the front windows well without causing damp.

However it is a bit raggedy and huge. How can I trim it so as not to harm it and to encourage regrowth?

I've seen American sites that say cut it early spring to about two feet tall. But they are a slightly different, colder climate, so am I okay doing it now and will this support the plant's regrowth?

Stand aside please, I think my name means this is a question for ME to answer...

If you want to reduce its bushy raggedness and restore a neat mound then the best thing is to snip off the spikes and comb out the dead growth. If you trim it back you will just get unattractive stubbly regrowth. IME it's impossible to keep it under control, you just have to let it be as big as it wants to be or rip it out at the roots. My mother set fire to hers once and burned down the neighbour's fence.

real RHS advice here

Ooh thanks! When you say the spikes do you mean the green curling grasslike foliage or the plumes?

She means the plumes.

OP forgive me for hijacking. We also have a fine pampus grass which I'll be depluming as detailed above - I'm not in a rush so I presume around March is ok.

BTW wear gloves. Amazingly sharp.

I have 2 other largish grasses in the garden (just moved, not a grass person but I'm starting to like them). In general are they ok to hack down to base in the spring ? One has plumes and is now brown all over, the other is just green with no flower heads....

You need to trim the bush to attract wildlife if that's what you are after. Otherwise keep the stems erect and the buds pinched.