My forsythia is just beginning to open its buds. It's a bit late this year but is always a welcome sight in the garden.
Totally agree! Snow again today for me here in NH. It hasn't stopped snowing at all today, but luckily it is not sticking to the ground because it is warm out and turning to water right away. Great picture by the way. Looks like the shrub is coming along very nicely. Thanks for sharing!
Hi. Always a cheering and lovely sight for sure coming as it does so early in the year. I would not be without a bush or two on the plot since Forsythia is the very first shrub I ever grew in the very first garden of my own - it was a new plot of just meadow grass and I was starting from scratch - hitherto I had gardened at parents home and helped others. That particular first shrub was given me by someone having a "clear out" and was going begging for a home - I was happy to accept it - later came a Lilac and Viburnum from the same source - that was in 1957 and I have been a keen gardener ever since. I must say that whilst all Forsythia is lovely I do prefer the older pale yellow version to the strident brighter yellow ones mostly seen now - perhaps I am the only one here SO old that I know of them ??. I have mentioned that cottage garden plants of all types are a great favourite of mine and likewise old "cottagey" shrubs - one of these another yellow one I like is the old very untidy double flowered Kerria japonica - forever tidying it up as bits and pieces died off on it but in spite of that it always thrived mightily - believe there is also a single flowered version of it but I found neither are everyones cup of tea lovely or not - just my thoughts those. Syd.
We had a terrible early snowstorm the winter before last which dumped three feet of snow onto plants that all still had their leaves. There was a lot of damage. Finally last summer the city workers got around to sprucing up the arboretum in town. They had two methods: either cutting each surviving shrub into a nice round ball, or cutting it to the ground. The forsythia got the former treatment, and so it is right now a nice round ball of bare twigs, with a corolla all around along the ground and under the mulch they spread of yellow blooms. I didn't notice it was forsythis blooming until I went over because I was wondering what all that yellow stuff was in the mulch around it. Yours looks much nicer! The dark wall behind it really makes it stand out.
Hi. Could I ever agree with you more ref pruning - some very very mixed ideas about it all and especially on the form retaining side - as you said they cut it flat or cut it round - symmetry and form just does not come into it with some. Further Forsythia pic to follow/edit shortly. The large stake is needed since some very strong winds blow through that area where it and other shrubs are planted. Forgive me all for saying this but is it generally known that some sprays of Forsythia with buds just showing put indoors in a vase of water will open flowers for some time.
There was a year here that a lot of April was cold. The forsythia did not begin to flower until late April. Imagine having forsythia in bloom on Mother's Day.
My forsythia is a way off flowering here in Essex. Infact, my daffs haven't even started to open yet. I do love forsythia, a lovely show.
