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Seen at House of Dun near Montrose .Scotland

Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
edited August 2021 in Plants
Help please...I have been racking my brain with no joy.
Sorry it was very wet and dark. Pics not all sharp.

In the walled garden.
Very vigorous shrub ...at one time de capitated, now on a thick trunk.
Leaves opposite.
No flowers/no berries or seed pods.
Suggestions welcome.

More pics added below
Perthshire. SCOTLAND .

Posts

  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    See above also.
    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    I really like a well-cared for Forsythia suspensa in an early spring garden.  Properly pruned rather than clipped and butchered it can be an elegant and beautiful shrub. I hope you can revisit next year and post some pics 😊 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Very interesting! That's as good a confirmation as I'm going to get that my forsythia that came with the house is (as I've assumed) F. suspensa. Mine has simple leaves, trifoliate leaves and some that are kind of half way in between, often all on the same branch.
    I didn't see this thread originally, or I might have recognised the plant!
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    edited October 2021
    JennyJ said:
    Very interesting! That's as good a confirmation as I'm going to get that my forsythia that came with the house is (as I've assumed) F. suspensa. Mine has simple leaves, trifoliate leaves and some that are kind of half way in between, often all on the same branch.

    I didn't see this thread originally, or I might have recognised the plant!
    Thank you for adding your image Jenny.

    On checking  my pics I found out we used to have a baby one in our old garden.
    Forsythia suspensa Taffs Arnold with variegated leaves...pics below.
    I had pics of the flowers but had never even looked  closely at the leaves. Duh!

    A fascinating shrub.
    Forsythia ......but with leaves so very different/varied from the norm.

    Quote from link Trees and Shrubs on line.
    "A deciduous shrub of rambling habit, which if trained on a wall will grow 30 ft high, but in the open, and unsupported, forms a mass of interlacing often pendulous branches, 8 or 10 ft high; young branches glabrous, hollow except at the nodes. Leaves mostly simple, 2 to 4 in. long, 1 to 2 in. wide, but occasionally on strong shoots trifoliate, three-lobed, or two-lobed, coarsely toothed, pointed, the simple leaves rounded or broadly wedge-shaped at the base, the leaflets wedge-shaped at the base; stalk about 1⁄2 in. long. "

    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Lovely @Silver surfer ! When I see pics like that it's hard to believe that some people don't like Forsythia. Then I see ones that have been clipped into bog-brush shapes......
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    JennyJ said:
    Lovely @Silver surfer ! When I see pics like that it's hard to believe that some people don't like Forsythia. Then I see ones that have been clipped into bog-brush shapes......
    I have to confess that I find Forsythia rather vulgare. Sorry.
    Granted in spring it is bright and cheerful.
    But I much prefer the subtle gentle colours of Corylopsis sp.

    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    That's lovely too :smile:
    If the forsythia flowered in midsummer I probably wouldn't be so keen but its such a good reliable pop of colour in early spring, and the suspensa form has a nice graceful habit if it's not butchered. Plus it's been here longer than I have and isn't fussy about the poor soil, dry-ish summers or anything else. Maybe I have vulgar taste  :smiley:
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    F. suspensa is a much less brash yellow than most of the forsythia seen nowadays, and the flowers are more delicately spaced on the branches… not like the bottlebrush effect of the variety ‘Lynwood Gold’ which is so often seen. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





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