This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Renovating Forsythia
Hello all, if a Forsythia has grown to tightly clipped 'column' about 9ft high and 3ft wide, is a mass of unproductive branches within and didn't really flower this year, can I hard prune it to the ground? Would it be safe to cut the whole thing down to about a foot (or lower?) to encourage lots of fresh growth that we can then keep to a better shape and size? It's in my friend's new garden and it looks like the previous owners have simply used a hedgetrimmer over the top and sides every year. Many thanks, jandh.
0
Posts
Yes, Do it soon.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Thanks nut. We have a newsletter down here from a wonderful local nursery and it said it was fine to hard prune the lot right now but I've always just done roughly 1 in 3 and then tipped back the remaining branches. But this one's a beast. The stems are about 2inches in diameter at the base so I thought it best to check on here before we got stuck in with our saws.
My personal inclination would be to hack it and then dig it up but then I don't like them.
However, assuming they want flowers next year they should cut about 1/3 of all the stems back to the main stem now. They can then shorten the remaining stems to a size and shape that suits them. If they repeat this every spring after any flowering finishes they will have renovated their shrub over 3 years - as long as they don't cut out the newest shoots next year and the year after.
Thereafter, they just need to cut back all the flowered stems as soon as flowering finishes. Forsythias flower on wood produced the previous year but an older one that's been neglected might go onto shock if you take out all the stems in one go. A spring feed wouldn't hurt.
Last edited: 30 April 2017 19:56:06
Arh. Bit of a contradiction now. You've knocked my confidence Obelixx
I was going to get the saw out tomorrow but now I'm a bit wary. My friend likes them and this one's obviously really established so it's going to be a job to get it out. If we remove roughly 1 in 3 to the base the remaining ones will look silly. If we then cut the remaining ones back to about 3ft surely we might as well cut them to 12inches and kind of start again from the ground? But if you think it'll be too much of a shock maybe we shouldn't.
Another suggestion. I would cut it all down to about 3-4 foot and cut any crossing stems in the middle right out. That would open up the shrub a bit, let air and light into the middle and give it room to grow. Also cut out any obviously dead wood.
Dilemma's dilemma's
I think we'll start and see how we progress. I think it'll be safe to be quite brutal but perhaps when we start it will naturally start to form a shape that she can live with that feels a bit like a safe compromise. Thank you everyone.
You will probably miss next year's flowers but cut it right back now and there will be new growth.
I don't really see that removing 1 in 3 stems would give it an odd shape but, since forsythia are neither expensive nor difficult to find, why not just hack the blazes out of it and if it does fail, just replace it.
In my experience it's quite ok to be really brutal with them ... when we came here there was the equivalent of the one you describe - in flower it looked like a yellow bog brush ... alongside it were some juniper-type trees that had been massacred and their tops taken out and they looked just awful too.
The chap who came to remove the junipers chopped them off at the base and they died. He did the same with the forsythia ... the following spring it put up lots of new shoots and the year after that we had a display of beautiful arching stems covered with flowers ...
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thanks Dove. We've had thunder and heavy rain all day today so didn't get a chance to go over to help. But I'll pass all the comments on. Thanks again to everyone.