This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Forsythia question.
Rio Knight
Posts: 26
in Plants
Hi guys long time lurker first time poster so a big hello from me. My question is this. I know from reading these forums that forsythia needs cutting back by a 3rd just after flowering but mine is now like a small tree and needs cutting right back to floor level as it's just too big now. What I need to know is will it start to sprout from the small stump or am I best off taking a cutting and taking the old one out roots and all. Thanks.
0
Posts
Hi Rio, welcome on board
I don't cut stems back by a third. I cut about a third of the stems back to base and leave the rest.
I have completely demolished one in the past. It had lost all shape and was a right mess, so, kill or cure, right back to about 6 inches for all stems. After that it flowered better than it had ever done before.
In your position I'd probably take cuttings then get the saw out
In the sticks near Peterborough
Hi Rio
your forsythia sounds a bit like mine! I gave mine a big cut back last year and, while it's not flowered as much as the year before it is fine, so I think you should be ok.
There are more experienced people here though who may have a different opinion
And nut is one of them
Nothing to lose Rio, fetch a saw.
If it all goes horribly wrong they're cheaply replaceable
In the sticks near Peterborough
When we moved here there was a huge forsythia on a single trunk in the corner of the garden - however the garden was very overgrown and the builders who were replacing the fencing didn't recognise it as a shrub and thought it was unwanted so they chopped it down to virtually ground level.
It's now nearly 3 years since that happened and this spring we have our first forsythia blooms - what has happened is that it has produced lots of long elegant canes from the stump, and looks as if it may be, as I had hoped, the variety Forsythia suspensa rather than the more usual and rather garish upright Lynwood type.
It's been a long time to wait, but it's been worth it.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Well Verdum..I trimmed it back one year, no flowers next year only new stems, no flowers the following year!! Got fed up with the plant and choped it off completely!! Not having another forsythia..unless I can find a dwarf/compact one.