Remember the forsythia I pruned so that I could force some branches? It doesn’t look so floriferous out in the open, does it? (For comparison, check out the forsythias here.)
When I’m faced with a plant that’s not doing as well as expected, I try to analyze the situation before taking action. In the case of the forsythia, I observed that the flowers were only on the ends of the branches. If it were cold damage, I would expect the flowers below the snowline to bloom, and the ones exposed to the cold higher up on the shrub to be missing. That’s not the case, and besides, this variety of forsythia is supposed to be bud-hardy to 30 below zero Fahrenheit, and it didn’t get that cold this winter.
I know that most flowering shrubs need lots of sun to give them the energy to form flowers, and I think this is getting closer to the problem. At first, I thought the lilac bushes on either side were shading the forsythia too much, but that doesn’t quite fit with the blooming pattern. All the missing flowers are towards the center of the shrub. I’m coming to the conclusion that the forsythia is shading itself too much, and needs a substantial thinning.
So in a week, two at the most, I’ll use my loppers to cut off the thickest branches as close to ground level as I can manage. I hope this will let more light into the center of the shrub, enabling it to produce more flower buds for next year. If that doesn’t help, I’ll have to suspect the general root competition from those lilacs. If that’s the problem, the choices are:
- Remove one or more lilacs
- Relocate or get rid of the forsythia
- Make an effort to give the forsythia more water and perhaps fertilize it
- Reconcile myself to a less than optimum display
Given those choices, I will probably go with number 4. I don’t want to get rid of any of the shrubs (they do their job of screening us from the road quite well), and anything I do to help the forsythia in terms of extra water will no doubt help the lilacs just as much. The point of the forsythia is to give me pleasure in spring, and it does that, even without a maximum amount of bloom. I find that bright yellow immensely cheering. I need it; I want it; I’m gonna have it–but I know I don’t have time to baby it. For me, that’s an acceptable trade-off.
A Reader’s Forsythia
Recently, a reader commented:
We just bought a house and the forsythia is very overgrown and old. It has many branches deep inside the bush that have nothing at all on them. Do we try to cut out all those old, non-blooming branches and hope for the best? We love forsythia. Help!!!!
This sounds like the same problem my shrub is having, only to a much greater degree. If a branch truly has nothing on it–no flower buds and no leaf buds, either–the branch is dead. By all means, cut it out. For branches that have leaves, but no flowers, the first step is to look around the shrub. Are other trees or shrubs shading the forsythia in summer? If so, no amount of forsythia pruning will help. You’ll have to prune away whatever is shading the forsythia, and that might not be worth the ugliness that might ensue.
You also have to consider if the forsythia isn’t bud-hardy for the climate. Any forsythia in the warmer part of zone 5 and south of that should be fine.
If both the above conditions don’t seem to be the problem, it does sound like a radical pruning is in order. Forsythias are very vigorous shrubs, and many people would advocate cutting the whole thing to the ground, watering and fertilizing well (using fertilizer suitable for flowering shrubs), and letting the shrub rejuvenate itself.
That’s just a little too scary for me. A more conservative approach is to cut out one-third of the branches for each of three years, gradually bringing the shrub into a more productive growth habit.
A “new” garden needs patient observation
When you first move into a house, you’re all excited and you want to roll up your sleeves and whip everything into shape. But really, the best thing to do is to wait a year and observe your property through the four seasons, taking lots of notes. For my first spring at this place, if I had assumed that the foliage coming out of the garden beds was old tired tulips that were no longer able to bloom, and had dug them out immediately, I never would have seen the colchicum blossoms that fall, and discovered a plant that has fascinated me for years since. Having said that, I can’t see how it would hurt to thin out your forsythia this spring. Just watch where you step, there could be another plant growing at its base!
What discoveries have other gardeners made when they first moved into an established yard and garden?
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i have a forsythia bush along the back side of my yard which normally is beautiful. it is better than a privacy fence. we have let it grow to about 9 feet tall, we keep it pruned on both sides to about 4 or 5 feet thick. the bushes were started from twigs and are about 20 years old. this year though they seem to be dying out in sections, i trimmed the dead out but cannot figure out what the problem is. we have had alot of rain so far this year, could this be a mold or mildew problem, and if so what can i do .
Jenny, here is a good tutorial on pruning forsythia:
http://www.plantamnesty.org/pruning_topics/pt_forsythias.htm
Jenny, the standard advice is that you should prune no later than two weeks after blooming has ended–and then quit. How you prune is just as important. You should follow a branch that you want to remove all the way back to where it connects to the main branch and cut it there. Don’t cut the tips of all the branches (which is called shearing); each branch will divide where it is cut and give the shrub a frizzy look.
If you prune later in the year than 2 weeks after bloom is done and still get good blooming the next year, I guess you’re the exception that proves the rule, or you really aren’t taking much off in those later prunings.
I prune after flowering and usually twice more in the year because I want the forsythia to look neat and tidy. Some of them come back with many blooms the next year while others do not. What is the latest time I should prune these to ensure flowers in the spring ?
Thanks for the advice everybody. I will probably tackle the job over the weekend.
Forsythia will almost always survive being cut back to the ground in spring — if you water it in dry, sunny weather. As noted, you can also cut out 1/3 or 1/4 of the oldest branches to the ground every year, with almost no risk. But that will take 3 or 4 years to get a “finished” bush.
You can average these two methods. To have a larger bush next year, and reduce any risk of sudden death from a full coppicing, cut out perhaps 2/3 or 3/4 of the branches to the ground, right now. By all means, fertilize some (I’d go with a Plant-Tone or Holly-Tone at half recommended dosage), and water as needed. There will be almost no risk of plant death, and you will have a significant bush next year, with improved flowering.
Then next year, after flowering, and in subsequent years, cut 1/3 or 1/4 of the oldest branches to the ground, as is generally suggested for long-run maintenance.
Well, let me jump right into this discussion. As Ki mentioned, you can prune back one fourth of the plant. I have taken more drastic measures and cut back at least a third. Even if you cut it all the way back to the ground, it will come back. We can’t get ours out of the ground without a back hoe, so we just cut it off to see what would happen. It’s back and happy and strappy and each branch was covered with blossoms.
It looks to me, from your photo, that you plants would benefit from a thorough pruning. Take out the tallest and the fattest branches, at least one third of them. Eyeball it, re-shape a bit, and forget it until next year. Then repeat in 2008. And 2009.
I admire your analytical, systematic approach to determining why your forsythia didn’t bloom as well as in past years. I would guess that pruning out the oldest branches will rejuvenate it a bit.
Hi Kathy, here’s some information about why your forsythias are not blooming well from thegardenhelper.com website.
“Pruning Forsythias
Forsythia flowers form on the previous season’s growth, not on new growth, so pruning should be done immediately after the flowers have faded. Once your Forsythia finishes blooming, take a close look to see what pruning needs to be done. Each year, you should prune back about one fourth of the oldest stems to within 4 inches of the ground.
If your Forsythia is drastically overgrown from years of neglect, it may stop blooming altogether. If this is the case, you can cut the entire plant to the ground. It may take a few years before you’ll see blooms again, but your shrub will come back, better than ever!”
I got tired of fighting our overgrown monster and finally dug it out which also did not bloom well because I pruned it at the wrong time. Now, I just enjoy other people’s forsythia.
I’m no expert on forsythia, but taking an educated guess based on what I’ve seen of other forsythia in my driving around this spring I think there may be one other possibility. You may have let the forsythia grow too stringy and spread out. It seems a lot of the more heavily flowering forsythia are pruned back to a more cohesive branch cluster. So, you may not have to thin the branches so much as trim them all back to a more solid hedge.