Acanthus pruning

Hi, looks like the frost has got to the leaves on my acanthus but there looks like some new leafs starting to come through as well am I best to leave the plant until March/April time and then prune the damaged leafs etc, thanks.

 

When I had acanthus at my last house I used to cut the leaves off when they went soggy in winter. Slugs hid under them and came out in spring. New leaves always grew in spring.

 

It is not really an issue one way or the other. It might avoid the new growth getting a bit frosted if you leave as is until the risk of frost is past or prune off the old growth now. Acanthus is very hardy. I grow a fairly hefty clump which survived going down to -18 oC some years back.

 

Thank you for your comments I’ll play it safe and trim the leafs March onwards.

 

Acanthus is pretty much unkillable, I would not worry. If you leave it, maybe check that those leaves are not smothering other plants. I removed my acanthus 5 years ago and am still removing the occasional shoot that comes up from a bit of root in the soil.