This year my Forsythia had the most blooms in the over 12 years I've lived here. When I moved here this bush was already over 10 years old so its old. I've been struggling taming this bush for the last 7 years and last year I got so frustrated with it I almost chopped the entire bush down. Then I went to google to figure out how to prune it. Paghat's site was in the first page of links when I used "pruning forsythia" as keywords. I learned to just let the bush be and do nothing. This spring it has the most flowers I have ever seen. Here's a pic:
forsythia need to be whacked back, renewal pruning so there is fresh wood for flowers. About 12 years ago I got fed up with my mothers forsythia "row" that wasnt doing anything (despite being in the sun). I ordered 4 different varieties of forsythia specific for our area (zone 5) and planted them and waited to see which one did the best. One of them was superior in quality and quantity of flowering. that one I propagated (they root sooo easily). In the meantime I removed the row of forsythia that was there, I put rabbit fencing up along the entire line of new ones (rabbit chewing newer wood results in little to no flowers), fertilized and mulched.
6 years ago I moved out and they were not pruned at all, but this year again they are magnificent altho they are also totally out of control. Ingrid
Mark Anders>This year my Forsythia had the most blooms in the over 12 years I've
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List at
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the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the recommendations I make. AND I DID NOT AUTHORIZE ADS AT THE OLD PUREGOLD SITE
For awhile I thought that in order to bloom they needed a lot of sun. In the spring when I walked around the neighborhood, so many Forsythias had huge clumps of flowers while mine struggled with 2 or 3 on a couple of branches. My Forsythia is located on the north side of the building and although it may get some early morning sun, in mid April, it doesn't get full sun until around 2pm till sunset around 7:30pm. Last year I took cuttings (and these bushes are extremely easy to grow from cuttings) and started 3 more bushes in better locations for spring sun. Although, after just leaving the bush be, this year it had the most flowers and I think next year it might have even more. I made some room for it to grow some more so I'm just leaving it alone.
Some people in my neighborhood have these bushes that look perfectly groomed and still fill the entire bush with bunches of flowers each spring. I don't know how they manage that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List at
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AT:
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the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the recommendations I make. AND I DID NOT AUTHORIZE ADS AT THE OLD PUREGOLD SITE
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