Yes, but only once a year. Light pruning helps, and you do not need to fuss over the plant the rest of the season. The whole job is one cut-back in late winter to very early spring, before new growth starts. Done right, pruning corkscrew rush clears out the tired old stems and gives the fresh spirals room to take over.
I knelt by my clump in late winter and found a dull tan tangle of browned stems flattened by snow. I pushed a hand into the base and there they were, fresh green spirals coming up underneath, bright against the dead straw. I cut the brown away in one pass, gathering the dead coils in a fist and snipping low at the soil line. Two weeks later the whole pot was a clean green flush, every coil curling up from the crown. The before and after is stark enough that I never guess at the timing anymore.
That window is short, so it pays to watch for it. Check the base of your plant every week or two once the worst cold breaks. The moment you see those new green tips, you know the old stems have done their job and can come off. Wait too long and your fresh growth tangles with the dead, which makes the cut messy and slow. Catch it early and you clear the brown in a couple of minutes.
Corkscrew rush is semi-evergreen, which is why timing the cut matters so much. The plant holds some of its twisted stems through winter, and that old foliage shields the crown from cold. So you wait. You cut back corkscrew rush in late winter to early spring, right before the new shoots wake up, not in fall when the cold is still coming.
What you remove is simple. Take out the dead or browned stems at the base, as low as your shears reach. Leave your healthy green spirals alone. New growth comes from the crown, not from the tips of cut stems, so shearing the live coils gains you nothing and just scalps your plant. There is no need to deadhead either, since the small brown flowers are easy to miss and do no harm left on. If you are unsure whether a stem is alive, give it a gentle tug. The dead ones pull free or feel papery, while the green ones hold firm.
Wait for late winter to very early spring, just as the first green spirals appear at the base. Cut the brown stems low and only once a year. Leave the old foliage in place through the cold months so it shields the crown.
Use clean, sharp shears so you make a tidy cut and do not crush the stems or pass on disease. Wipe the blades before you start, then make the cut once and step back. Repeated trimming corkscrew rush through the year stresses the plant and strips the foliage it relies on for energy. Leave the winter stems in place until that late-winter window, then clear them in a single session and let the crown do the rest.
If your plant looks ragged in summer, you can pull or snip a few brown spirals here and there. This is tidying, not real pruning, and you keep it to the odd stem rather than a full shearing. The plant grows fast in warm, wet soil, so a healthy clump fills back in on its own within a few weeks.
So the answer is yes, prune it, but lightly and on a schedule. Pruning corkscrew rush comes down to one cut a year in that late-winter window, and that does almost all the work. Keep the green spirals, take the dead ones, and the crown handles the rest.
Read the full article: Corkscrew Rush: Complete Care Guide
