Rain garden/spring clean up

Question: Hello,

I live in NE DC and inherited a rain garden in my yard when I moved in in 2021. The garden has pink turtlehead, some iris and Lillie’s, and 2 kinds of shrubs, which I have struggled to identify, but one of them produced very striking red berries this past winter, which I don’t recall it producing during the 21-22 winter.

Should I cut back the dead turtlehead to allow for regrowth? I’ve seen mixed information about the best way to care for it.

Any idea what the shrubs are and Is now a good time to prune them? The pics aren’t great, so no worries if you can’t identify them.

Any other advice or suggestions for rain garden care? There’s some dead foliage at the bottom and I’m not sure whether I should clear that, or if it’s good to leave it.

1st pic is what it looks like now. 2nd pic is of one of the shrub’s berries this past winter. 3rd pic is the best pic I have from late summer/early fall when turtlehead was blooming and shrubs were leafed out.

responder: Answered by the Home and Garden Information Center (HGIC), University of Maryland Extension. For timely gardening information and tips, subscribe to our Maryland Grows blog and quarterly newsletter. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Replied April 03, 2023, 11:54 AM EDT
response: The Turtlehead and any other dormant (no live foliage) perennials can be cut back now or in the next few weeks, yes. This isn't necessary for plant health but is done mainly for aesthetics; the dead stems would continue to weather away and either collapse or blow off in time if left as-is otherwise. Small solitary native bee species can nest in dead plant stems, which is one reason we advise they be removed as late in spring as possible to avoid disturbing them, but a middle-ground solution is to cut plants back and to keep the clipped stems on the property somewhere, laid against other vegetation or intact on the ground so any bees present can leave when they're ready and the stems will self-compost over time.  The mystery shrub with red berries is Winterberry Holly (botanical name Ilex verticillata), which is native and deciduous (not evergreen nor spiny like many hollies are), so it's normal to not have foliage during winter. As with most hollies, Winterberry is dioecious, which means that single plants produce only male or female flowers. The female plants produce berries, but only if pollinated by a suitable male Winterberry variety. Perhaps the second shrub is the male Winterberry (unless it's elsewhere in the yard, or a maybe a neighbor put one in). If not, we'd need to see more images of the mystery shrub to ID it, preferably once it has foliage expanded later this spring.  Winterberry does not need pruning, nor is it regularly trimmed compared to hollies used in hedging and screening. If you wish to prune it to adjust its size or shape, be aware that doing so could reduce the berry set this coming fall/winter as it may remove the flowers that would result in fruit (berry) formation, at least for the year it was trimmed. The shortest of the Winterberry cultivars matures in the neighborhood of 3 to 5 feet high and wide, so pruning one significantly shorter than this may result in poor fruiting. It's very difficult to tell what cultivar this one may be without a name tag left behind, so we can't determine how tall it's likely to get as it matures.  Fallen leaves are a great groundcover in place of mulch and feed a variety of beneficial soil insects and soil microbes, so are good to keep where possible. They will gradually shrink in volume as the recycling organisms get to work once we warm up a bit more. If any plants died-out last summer from apparent disease (complete stem dieback in a widening patch is a typical symptom) then removing the fallen leaves, at least from around the problem spot, may reduce the risk of it happening again since they can trap moisture around stem bases. (Still, it's not a certain disease risk, and a natural mulch of fallen leaves is a condition many native plants are accustomed to dealing with.)  Miri

responder: The Question Asker Replied April 03, 2023, 10:52 PM EDT
response: Thank you Miri :) On Mon, Apr 3, 2023 at 11:54 AM Ask Extension <<personal data hidden>> wrote:

responder: Answered by the Home and Garden Information Center (HGIC), University of Maryland Extension. For timely gardening information and tips, subscribe to our Maryland Grows blog and quarterly newsletter. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Replied April 04, 2023, 8:15 AM EDT
response: You're welcome.