Forsythia quandry

You keep trimming away the flowering mechanism. Try trimming now as you will lose nothing seeing as they are not blooming and next year trim as soon as the flowers become a bit ratty.

Your forsythia are forming buds not too long after they flower, which is quite early. You are definitley cutting off the buds.

Toad

Stew,

1. Try cutting some of the oldest canes down to the ground. New, younger (and likely more productive) ones will emerge.

1. Apply a little fertilizer (and water if needed ) during the growing season.

2. As others have noted, you are pruning rather late in the year. Best time is immediately following flowering season, so that new growth (which will flower next spring) is not removed.

1. Many folks (including me) think forsythia looks best if unpruned or pruned as little as possible -- that encourages the crazy sculptural form of the branches. I realize it doesn't suit everyone's taste, but if you have space and inclination for that, consider it. It can be supplemented with #1.

Best of luck.

Mike Prager On the North Carolina coast - Zone 8a (Remove spam traps from email address to reply.)

Thanks Mike for your perspective. These forsythia are part of a privacy hedge, so drastic cutback is not an option.

However, if I were to just prune now, by mid Aug there would be 6 foot high spikes ...every year I have pruned the same way and typically have full flowering except these last two seasons.

I am tempted to trim now and not touch it again just to see what happens ...but I think it is environmental, since I have not seen any decent displays anywhere in our area

Stew Corman

If "environmental" means you cutting all the flower buds off in the fall, then yes, its environmental.

In article , Mike Prager