Forsythias - How Should They Be Groomed?
@KuznVinny (768)
United States
March 25, 2016 11:40am CST
I'm not a Master Gardener. Neither am I an expert at gardening or landscape. Yet, even I know a forsythia is best grown, not as a hedge, but as a free-growing shrub. Oh, to be sure, it should be cut back some every year to get rid of woody stems and encourage new growth. But to grow it and groom it as a hedge? Absurd.
We have some beautiful, saturated bright yellow forsythia bushes in the county I live in -- most particularly in Arrington, Virginia. But we have our share of silly-looking forsythia hedge growers. More stems than flowers are exhibited to the driver-by. A sad testimony to what is ordinarily a beautiful and bright, sunny feature of Spring.
6 people like this
5 responses
@KuznVinny (768)
• United States
25 Mar 16
There are many colors in nature, but the most prevalent are probably the most beautiful. I like sky blue (deep), bright clean yellow, and rich spring green. Since most spring flowers are not green or blue, but yellow, and since forsythia is one of the early ones, I want it to be treated worthily.
2 people like this
@ElusiveButterfly (45941)
• United States
25 Mar 16
I cringed when I was at a client's home and spied the maintenance worker "trimming" the trees. The forsythia was hacked to bits. My client said she told him not to trim it back so much because it wouldn't bloom. She was right, it had a couple of flowers here and there. Looked rather sickly.
2 people like this
@KuznVinny (768)
• United States
25 Mar 16
Which probably means you let them be bushes, and not hedges.
1 person likes this
@1creekgirl (44560)
• United States
25 Mar 16
The only thing worse than a shaped or groomed forsythia is a groomed azalea. Horrid.
1 person likes this
@1creekgirl (44560)
• United States
25 Mar 16
@KuznVinny I've even seen Magnolia trees trimmed halfway up, planted close to houses with tiny yards. Don't people know a majestic Magnolia needs at least an acre of land of its own?
1 person likes this
@KuznVinny (768)
• United States
25 Mar 16
There you go! I have to agree. At most, odd protuberances can be pruned. The plant in its totality, however, should not be shorn.
1 person likes this
@KuznVinny (768)
• United States
25 Mar 16
@1creekgirl You are SO right. And along driveways, they plant trees a foot or two away. Don't they know a tree branches out and is considerably larger?
1 person likes this
@KuznVinny (768)
• United States
25 Mar 16
All kidding aside. Wild flowers (NATIVE wild flowers) are my favorite. Even some weeds have gorgeous - if tiny - flowers that, under a microscope are phenomenally beautiful. Even the Lady's thumb weed, a thumb-shaped collection of pink "flowers" contains seeds that, under a microscope only, resemble fine dark wood, complete with wood grain!
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