Cutting Hosta in Fall

One of the readers of Cheesehead Gardening had a great question last week (thanks Donna).  They wanted to know if they should cut their hostas to the ground once they start to decline in fall.  I personally think it's not a good idea to cut the hostas down for the ground in fall.  For one, many people use the same cutting tool on all of their hostas.  So if one of the hostas happens to be diseased you risk spreading it to all of your other hostas.  If you happen to be one of those people who want to have everything cleaned up in fall, one way around this would be to carry a pail with 10% bleach solution and dip your cutting tool between plants.  In my yard it would be a lot of work to cut all of the hostas down to the ground.  So I just leave them, and then in spring I simply rake up the remains.  Most of the leaves disintegrate over the winter, so it's usually on the scapes that are left to clean up.