Many people prefer this wild look, and annual pruning is by no means mandatory. If you're happy with your bush's shape, you can go for several years without pruning. However, if you like a neater look, you can prune your bush to conform to a more organized shape. Thus, if you prune past the end of July, you run the risk of losing all the flowers for the following spring.
This won't kill the plant, but it means you'll have drab shrubs for a year. Begin by pruning roughly a quarter to a third of the oldest branches, cutting them right down to the ground. This will encourage new growth and a more compact form.
Beyond this "renewal" pruning, you can also selectively cut newer branches to improve upon the overall shape of your forsythia. Propagating forsythia plants is the best way to multiply your supply, short of heading to a nursery to get more mature plants. The ideal way to propagate forsythia is through a stem cutting in early to mid-summer. Here's how:. Forsythia shrubs can be prone to knobby galls forming along the stems, as well as fungal twig blights.
Both problems are best treated by removing affected stems. Twig blights can be prevented by keeping the plant well pruned to improve air circulation, and by applying a fungicide. If you find yourself missing out on forsythia's signature bright blooms , there may be a few causes to blame.
One of the most common issues for a lack of blooms is improper pruning. Forsythia set bloom on old wood, so any pruning should be done before that happens in late summer or early fall—otherwise, you run the risk of pruning off next year's flowers, which will leave you with a rather bare bush for the following season.
Another reason why your forsythia bush may not be blooming adequately is due to a lack of light. Forsythia bushes are very strict about their sunlight needs and the bushes necessitate at least six hours of light daily on average—a few days here or there with less won't be a huge issue. If you have a few pesky bushes that just aren't blooming, take some time to observe how much light your plant gets. Softwood forsythia cuttings taken in late spring to early summer will root readily, allowing for easy propogation.
Remove older branches by cutting them off at the ground. Later in the spring, new growth can be trimmed back to the nearest joint, if desired. Old, neglected forsythias can be rejuvenated by pruning them back to within 3 to 4 inches of the ground in late winter or early spring. This hardy shrub rarely experiences serious damage from insect pests or diseases. Forcing Forsythia Blooms Indoors To bring spring colors into your home, try forcing forsythia indoors!
The flowers are the classic bright yellow. The shrub is covered with small yellow flowers in early spring. Leaves are green with yellow centers. One old-time saying is to plant peas when the forsythia starts to blossom, The forsythia is named after William Forsyth, an 18th-century Scottish horticulturist.
Vegetable Gardener's Handbook. What do you want to read next? Butterfly Bush. Common Plants You Probably Thought Not only may it arrive more quickly, but it will have been grown according to local conditions.
If you are hoping for that lovely yellow color all year long, you will be sorely disappointed. Forsythia has the blast of spring color and then turns into a lush green plant until the cold weather hits. Once the plants have gone through a frost, they will lose all of the leaves and flowers and show only the long arching canes in the winter months.
To enjoy the color during the winter months, try forcing the branches indoors even when there is snow on the ground.
See my tips for forcing forsythia here. While buying plants from the garden centers is the quickest way to get a new plant, it is also the most expensive.
Forsythia branches root easily and will give you new plants to use in other parts of your garden, if you are patient to wait for them to take root. Layering and taking cuttings are the two of the easiest and fastest ways to root a forsythia shrub.
The process is simple enough that even a beginner with not much of a green thumb can have success with this easy to root plant. These branches will be more tender and will root more easily. To take a cutting, just remove the leaves from the bottom have and dip the bottom tip in a rooting powder.
Place them in sand, a good seed starting soil or perlite, mix and keep moist. You should have rooted cuttings in weeks. Then you can move them to their own larger pots with normal potting soil until they are more established and are growing. You can then plant them in your garden. For a forsythia, this is the easiest way to get a new plant. To layer a branch, just place a pot near an established forsythia plant. Choose a branch that will reach to the pot and bury the stem under a few inches of soil.
The roots will establish quickly and you can then cut the stem that connects the two plants and plant the branch with roots. It will grow easily into a new shrub. Once forsythia branches have taken root, you can transplant them in another area of your garden to give more of this showy plant to enjoy. It is best to move a forsythia bush in late fall or winter, when the bush is not actively growing, to reduce any chance of transplant shock.
Two seasons ago, I had one forsythia bush take root just from having an arching branch touch the ground near it.
I staked the branch down for a while to let the roots develop. It was then easy to chop off from the main plant and dig up to transplant in another border. It actually flowered a bit the last spring, and now just about 18 months later, I have a good sized shrub that is about 4 feet wide and 3 feet tall. It was mature enough this year to give me a nice show of flowers just a few weeks ago. Knowing when to trim forsythia is important to make sure that you get those blooms every year.
Established forsythia plants will need to be trimmed to keep their pretty arching shape and also to keep them a manageable size. This is best done in the spring after flowering and when the plant is at least 1 year old since you will be removing whole branches. See my tips for pruning forsythia here. In this case, it is time for either renovation pruning or hard pruning.
See my tips for this process here. Follow these tips for planting forsythia and you will be rewarded with the first sign of spring each year that beckons you out into your garden, with the cheery yellow flowers. If you would like a reminder of this post for planting forsythia, just pin this image to one of your Gardening Boards on Pinterest.
Admin note: This post for tips on when and how to plant forsythia first appeared on the blog in March of I have updated the post to add more tips, additional photos, a printable project card and a video for you to enjoy. Currently you have JavaScript disabled. In order to post comments, please make sure JavaScript and Cookies are enabled, and reload the page.
Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your browser. I planted a forsythia shrub about a foot tall back in March. It is now almost September and it seems hardy but has not grown one inch! It includes 11 species of deciduous woody shrubs that bear bold yellow flowers in early spring. Suited to gardeners in USDA Hardiness Zones 5 to 8, these plants are fast-growing and range in height from 12 inches to 10 feet tall. We link to vendors to help you find relevant products.
If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. Here in the Northeast where I live, it has naturalized to the point where many folks presume it is a native species. In the late s, a Dutch expedition of plant collectors travelled to Japan. He brought back a shrub with arching branches and yellow flowers that was thought to be a lilac, and classified it as Syringa suspensa.
In the s, it was decided that the plant was not actually a lilac, and the Forsythia genus was created. The new species was called Forsythia suspensa , in honor of William Forsythe, a Scottish botanist who was a founding member of the Royal Horticultural Society, and Director of the Royal Garden at Kensington.
Dutch cultivation continued into the mids, when Scottish botanist Robert Fortune made a trip to China for the Horticultural Society of London. He brought back a specimen classified as F. In the late s, a plant was discovered in a German botanical garden that appeared to be the result of an unintentional cross between the two known forsythia species.
At the end of the 19th century, a species was discovered growing in Albania. It had fewer flowers and less ornamental appeal than other types, and was named F. It remains the only known species not of Asian origin. By , the cultivated variety F. Today, common border forsythia, F. They are hardy shrubs that tolerate a variety of soils and exhibit excellent drought and salt tolerance.
Larger types may put on as much as 24 inches of new growth in one year. Forsythia is stoloniferous, which means when a branch comes in contact with the soil it can take root and start another bush. Online nurseries often supply bare rootstock because it is lightweight and cost effective to ship through the mail. It consists of a rooted stem with all of the soil removed.
When you receive it, in the fall, it needs to be watered and planted as soon as possible. To do this, set the roots in a bucket of water while you work your garden soil to a depth of about 12 inches. Settle the bare roots into the soil so that the crown — where the roots and stem meet — is about an inch above ground level.
The roots and soil, with at least one established stem, are contained in a biodegradable burlap sack that should be planted directly into the ground. Place the entire biodegradable bag into the soil so that the crown, where the stem meets the roots, is about an inch above ground level. The process, which is best done after blooming or in the fall, involves digging straight down through the roots of an established plant to separate it into two or more plants. It requires strength to force the shovel down, break the roots, and lift the mound of soil and plant from the ground in order to transplant it elsewhere.
In addition, you may have to trim down some stiff old canes to be able to work your shovel into the plant to do the job. For more information on this process, see our guide to dividing perennials. Growing forsythia from seed is generally not recommended, as viability and germination rates are uncertain. You may start seeds indoors six to eight weeks before the last average frost date, or direct sow them after the date has passed.
Thin the seedlings to one per starter pot or egg carton cell, and transplant them outdoors when they have at least two sets of true leaves. Place them in soil that has been prepared as above. The soil in the starter pot should be level with the ground soil. Space the seedlings according to their mature dimensions. Plant dwarf varieties one to two feet apart, moderately-sized hedge plants 4 to 6 feet apart, and the largest varieties 8 to 10 feet apart. Layering is a way to make a new plant by bending the stem of an established plant to the ground and letting it take root.
Scrape about an inch of the stem, inches from the tip, where it touches the soil to break its cortex, the outer layer. Weigh the soil down over the stem with a small rock or brick, and keep the soil moist, but not waterlogged.
In the fall, provided new growth appears, the roots will have formed and you may detach the new plant from its mother by cutting the stem that joins them. If you left your layering a little bit late, and you see no signs of fresh growth, leave it to overwinter and detach and transplant the following spring.
Dig the new plant up, going down about 10 inches, and leaving a generous amount of soil attached. Garden centers often have pots ranging from quart to gallon sizes that contain one or more rooted stems in potting medium.
The stems may be short or tall, depending upon their age, and whether or not they have been pruned. Stems placed directly into the ground can sprout roots, especially with a little help from some powdered rooting hormone. For best results, take stem cuttings in the spring. Cut the stem into sections of about six inches long, and strip the leaves from the bottom three inches of each section.
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