This past winter was tough on them. I lost one in a north facing garden. Miscanthus 'Little Zebra'. Variegata and Morning Light were just fine.

Steve

Mine are fine here in coastal zone 6b. I have 'Variegata', 'Malepartus', 'Gracillimus' and 'Adagio'. They only started growing a few weeks ago so it may be early for you.

Do you wait until spring to prune them? I don't know if that makes a difference with grasses, but I always leave perennial and grass foliage up over the winter to protect the crowns. We're warmer here but the winter winds can get nasty so I put up with the messiness and only prune them when I need to get the old growth out of the way of the new (and the pierises and daffodils start blooming).

Claire

I wouldn't give up on them yet. Rigoletto is the jester, (opera pun) so he may pop in by surprise. My Gracillimus has new leaves about 24" tall and the Adagio is, well, playing it slowly with very few new leaves up about 7" tall. It has put out new shoots some 10" from the original plant and the new leaves are a foot tall, so we'll see. IMO, it's too early in a somewhat unforgiving spring to cut their lives short. Both of mine were 2-3 gal. pots planted in the spring of last year. I cut both of them free of their winter garb in perhaps the 3rd week of April, leaving straw colored stalks some 8-10" high.
Jane

I do prune them back in the spring. I did that probably a month or more ago. Anyway, I dug up the one with no growth. Roots dead. I dug up the next younger one with a few blades showing. Roots dead. The three year old one I also dug up. That one might have made it, but I couldn't deal with spindly growth that it probably would have had for this season. It's probably a blessing in disguise because the size that the root ball of miscanthus can get is nearly out of my league now. Ever having to divide it, or dig up an older dead one years from now, would be next to impossible. So now I have more room for maybe more Feather Reed Grass.

Best tool for dividing a Miscanthus, is a Sawzall.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: Reciprocating Saw