Read this before you prune that Forsythia

Photo credit: by Arielle (via Flickr)

Forsythia shrubs are enormously popular for their cheerful early spring flowers. If you have this shrub and are confused about how to prune it, you're not alone. This is one of the most mal-treated shrubs around.

The reason – it's a shrub that gets big, but it's usually planted in a spot that's too small. The result: you shear it or whack it back and hope that will make it smaller. But nature has the last word. (Doesn't she always?) Pruning stimulates more growth, and plants grow to a height and width that's genetically programmed. For forsythia shrubs, that's 7 to 10 feet tall and wide.

So what do people do to forsythias that are shoehorned into just 4 or 5 feet of ground? They prune them into unsightly balls, squares or hamburger buns, when in fact this shrub's growth habit is naturally arching and vase-shaped.

For better-looking forsythia shrubs, here's how and when to prune the right way.

© Yvonne Cunnington, Country Gardener

It was a pussy-cat winter: says forsythia

This spring's forsythia in bloom
After the winter my forsythia looks usually looks like the picture below, that is, with only a bit of bloom at the bottom where there was snow cover.

Well, it must have been an easy, or at least a milder, winter: this spring the entire shrub is blooming for the first time in about five years.

So far it's been unseasonally warm for April - too warm for those of us who like to see the spring bulb flowers linger. And already, dare I say it, it's very dry. I sure hope this summer isn't as depressingly dry as it was last year.

Drought years get me so down that I want to quit gardening. I wonder if other gardeners feel that way. If I was on city water, and could water my garden more easily, would I feel the same way? Perhaps not.

© Yvonne Cunnington, Country Gardener