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Help with pruning Forsythia and Buddleia please?

louise.whittington100louise.whittington100 Posts: 40
in Problem solving
Hi all, Could anyone advise if this Forsythia is worth pruning (and if so how hard?) to improve it's shape and flowers next year as it is extremely leggy with few flowers.  Also I have had a go at pruning my Buddleia (see before and after pics) - does this look about right or can I prune harder? I've read they can be very hard pruned but not entirely sure what that means!

Posts

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    you can cut Forsythia as low as you like after flowering. Buddleia can be done now or soon, I wouldn't go below where you can see new shoots growing


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    I take the opposite approach - my Buddleia gets pruned hard, down to about knee high or lower, in early spring. I did the deed two weeks ago when there was already new growth, so maybe I left it a bit late. My Forsythias (suspensa I think, but they were here before me) are pruned a little later when they finish flowering, by taking a few of the oldest branches out as close to the ground as I can get and leaving the rest alone. That way they have a larger, more open graceful structure with next year's flowers all along the branches rather than the clipped blob/loo brush shape with flowers just on the outside that you see so often.
    I suppose it goes to show, both are tough and fairly forgiving whatever you do. The only thing to remember is that buddleia flowers later in the summer on the growth made that year, whereas forsythia flowers early in the year on older growth.I think you could take your buddleia a lot lower.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • EmptyheadtimeEmptyheadtime Posts: 366
    Like jennyj I too hard prune my buddleia. Mine get chopped to about half what you have in your picture otherwise I find it gets too much for the spot I have it in.
  • AcuwellAcuwell Posts: 87
    Thanks - I took the Buddleia back to just above the lowest shoots as that seemed to make sense. Are you sure it will still sprout if I go into the older wood???
  • Mrs-B3-Southampton,-HantsMrs-B3-Southampton,-Hants Posts: 732
    Yes
    Southampton 
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Mrs-B3-Southampton,-Hants said:
    Yes
    I agree … Pa sawed a large one right down to below knee height … by summer it was full of blooms. 

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





  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I've cut them [buddleias] to almost being non existent and they grow back. I did that to one which was already here, dug it out and basically dumped it on some spoil as I was completely rebuilding the space, and adding an extension, and it grew back no problem.
    This is it in behind the spade. It was around 8 or 9 feet the previous summer when we moved in. I gave it to my nephew for his new build bare plot and it's till very happy there

    I don't grow Forsythia, but they're also pretty tolerant of any type of pruning, as others have described.
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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