I'm a cutter, too. In fact I've already started. Years ago an early winter put an end to my garden clean up and I thought it wouldn't make any difference to clean the sections that were left in the spring. The weeds for the next few years in those sections were a nightmare! Most will regrow new foliage as they stop blooming refreshing the garden after the somewhat ratty looking foliage of late summer has been removed. The left over 10 -12" from cutting and the new growth seem to do a well enough job of protecting the plants over winter, unless they are tender to begin with. While removing the foliage I also notice slugs and snails of various sizes being taken out of the garden in those leaves.
Plants are cutback as I restock the sale beds and I just continue right into the display areas as I move things around. All but the new spring planted sdlgs get trimmed. One advantage of trimming the other two sdlg areas for me ( I have 3 areas that rotate) is that I can see the cross tags and pods making it easier to find them. Seedlings are planted very close together making it difficult to find pods with all the foliage and different sized plants mixed together.
I agree with sooby though, cutting them is more to my advantage than the daylilies.
