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Forsythia help

Matty_PMatty_P Posts: 64
in Plants
Hi all,

Moved to a new house last year and this one tree was impossible to identify at the time but now it's flowered it's clear :) Anyway, it's a bit of a mixed bag flowering wise. Some stems have flowers, some chunky stems from the ground up have none which I find a bit odd. It also seems to be flowering more on the right side..it also looks in danger of being leggy with all the flowering very high and long thick lower stems. Just looking for some other opinions on how to improve it's appearance-flowering/shape. Thanks for the help
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  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    If you want to keep it (l know Forsythia isn't everyone's cup of tea), then you can hard prune it.
    It will mean missing the flowers next Spring, but l don't think that will be a hardship looking at the state of it at the moment :) 

    Have a look at this
    https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/forsythia/growing-guide
  • AuntyRachAuntyRach Posts: 5,291
    It’s quite a big, leggy shrub and you’ll only have a few weeks of bloom, then it’s pretty non-descript. As it’s in such a prominent position - would you consider retiring it and having something else? If not, yes hard chop it and see if it looks better. 

    I have one in my front garden that I have only kept as it’s in a corner and just breaks up the dark yew hedge. 
    someone on this forum once said they should be pruned “below ground level” 😂

    Enjoy the colour now (a few stems in a vase for Spring/Easter is pretty) then chop? 
    My garden and I live in South Wales. 
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    An alternative way of pruning it is to take out about a third of the branches right down close to ground level, choosing the oldest ones - they'll be the thickest. Do the first third now/soon, and repeat each year, straight after it's finished flowering. That way you rejuvenate they whole bush over three years.Then carry on taking a few of the oldest branches out each year.
    Whatever you do, don't clip it all over into a blob shape - that's what produces the ugly forsythias that are so unpopular, with dense twiggy growth and often sparse flowers. They are best allowed to flower all along on long arching stems.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • JAC51JAC51 Posts: 175
    I love my forsythia the yellow is so cheerful in springtime. Not a great photo as it’s just starting to get dark but you can see how it’s been pruned each year I prune out half a dozen of the flowering stems. Almost like pollarding 



  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    I take mine lower down than @JAC51 , but otherwise pretty much the same approach.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • Matty_PMatty_P Posts: 64
    Thank you for all the comments. I'd be keener on it if it was in flower for longer, if they have enough flowers and in bloom longer I would like it more. If I were to replace it I'd want something of a similar size ultimately and that would obviously take some years to attain. So yes I would consider replacing but as I don't know what with. Probably for another post really but I quite like ilex lawsonsonia which I saw once. Pic attached.

    Jac21, yours looks nice & has the classic forsythia shape if there is one. Ours kind of has two main branching parts and I'm wondering if I could chop the left half and then try to get the remaining to branch out to the left more. If only I could just ask it. Or perhaps it is a case of pruning 3rds per year to ground to almost start again. Amazing they can regrow, some stems are probably 50mm wide at least.


  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 970
    I hear many comments of how boring forsythia are for the rest of the year. To some extent, where space is at a premium, I would agree. But ours also have lovely Autumn colour, which usually starts to develop from September with the leaves gradually turning a soft purple. First a few and then eventually most of the shrub. It’s equally good on the north and south facing one.


     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited 10 March
    I agree @Butterfly66 … forsythia can be gorgeous if it’s allowed to grow as nature intended, with delicately arching branches, and not hacked into a hedge or even worse … a lumpy bogbrush. 

    The one in our neighbour’s  garden look so pretty at the moment … it’s left alone most of the time, with just occasionally the oldest branches being taken out at their base. 

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





  • FourLeafCloverFourLeafClover Posts: 22
    I just wanted to say how nice it is to read these positive comments about Forsythia, mine is just starting to flower and gives a little sunshine to an otherwise dull corner of the garden even on a damp dreary morning like it is today 🌧️
  • Matty_PMatty_P Posts: 64
    The garden birds seem to love it. They purch in it then swoop down to the bird feeder just in front of it, not in the picture. I think I will try and tidy it up a bit once it's finished flowering.
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