This type of dramatic pruning is best done in late winter or very early spring while the plant is still dormant. If winter is giving you the doldrums and you would like a bit of this cheery yellow color inside, try forcing forsythia indoors. The links below are affiliate links. I earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you if you purchase through an affiliate link. Zebra plant — Tips for Growing Aphelandra Squarrosa. Currently you have JavaScript disabled.
In order to post comments, please make sure JavaScript and Cookies are enabled, and reload the page. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your browser. Thanks for the article. I rescued two plants from shade on my property line and now they're smack in the front by the driveway. One is bigger, one is smaller. I'm glad I found someone who likes the wild look. Not too wild, I know. I got good advice from this article. Upon attempting some renovation pruning of my forsythia, There were very few canes left after pruning the biggest ones and the ones I thought were split.
It seemed like pretty much every cane was split, or had many offshoot little branches growing off of a main one. If this is the case, would you suggest hard pruning all of the bushes? Aside from possible splitting, they are all rather misshapen. The previous owner pruned incorrectly. Any forsythia branch that is trimmed will split. If you want to keep it maintained in a small spot, sometimes this is the only way to go, but forsythia plants look best when they have room to display the branching habit.
Young forsythias need little to no pruning. Only when they mature should you prune them once a year. If you want to help maintain the shape of the plant as it grows, you can snip off a few longer stems once a year, though this is not required.
Part 2. Remove a quarter of the oldest stems by cutting them at ground level. The stems get thicker as they age, and they start to rub against each other towards the inside of the shrub. This can cause disease and infection. To prevent this, use a handsaw to remove some of your old, thick stems. Move your handsaw back and forth quickly to make your cuts. The oldest stems typically are also the tallest.
By getting rid of them, you reduce the overall height of your shrub. Do this after your plants mature to about years old. This way, they are large enough to support such a massive pruning. Cut the stems to 12 in 30 cm or more if you want to encourage growth. Use a pair of loppers or a fine-tooth handsaw to cut your large stems. Instead of cutting them at the ground, leave about 1 ft 0.
This way, new stems can grow from the remaining portion of the branch. Remove branches low to the ground to maintain the shape of the plant. Sometimes, the forsythia plant grows branches toward the base. This does not look the best, since most of the flowers bloom at the canopy of the plant. To reshape your plant, simply cut off these branches using your pruning shears. Make your cut where the branch first sprouts off the other stem. Get rid of any dead, bent, or split stems to keep your plant healthy.
As perennials grow, they often produce a few dead branches. In addition, the dense stems may start to touch or rub together. While these instances occur normally as the plant grows, they can take away nutrients and expose the plant to infection. Dead, bent, and split stems also change the look of your shrub. Cut branches back to their point of origin to thin out the canopy. Her own small urban garden is a work in progress - so many ideas, not enough space to cram them in.
Hero plants include her ever growing collection of ornamental grasses, black bamboo and ferns, and the perennials like salvias and penstemons that come back reliably year after year. All very restrained though when in fact she'd love to pack her garden with gaudy dahlias and giant cannas, so these are top of her wish list for what to grow next. Grow Your Own Our pick of winter vegetables to grow will make ideal additions to your raised beds or container garden. Gardens The expert's tips for taking hardwood cuttings will give you more of your favorite roses.
GardeningEtc is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number GardeningEtc The Home of outdoor living. Select your region. Sign up to our newsletter Newsletter. Trending Best fire pits Best hedge trimmers Decking ideas Low maintenance garden ideas Best secateurs. Hello Carol, My forsythia bushes cover a large area in the corner of my yard and they are very old.
They were here when I moved in 37 years ago! I prune them every year, but I think they need a hard pruning now. Can I cut them down to 3 feet or so instead of all the way to the ground? It's mid-November and I would do this within the week, which is hopefully not too late. In my opinion, pruning of forsythia canes should be close to the ground.
I normally prune the oldest canes each year right to the ground and leave the others for flowering. Hard pruning is really only recommended for totally overgrown forsythia. If you cut the branches off at three feet, you'll have all the branches sprouting new growth which will alter the arching habit of the perennial. Pruning is normally done in the spring right after flowering. Doing it now will mean that you'll get no blooms next spring. Hello Carol! I loved your article! We had 4 forsythia bushes which were a mess and taking over the garden.
We hard pruned them after they had blossomed this past spring. I misunderstood the timing of this. So, now, along with seeingly a number of other plants, are really growing during this co-vid summer. Now the forsythia each have many branches, some are feet tall. Should we be pruning anything at this point? They seem to be growing in all directions.
Please advise! Thank you in advance for your advice. We live in upstate NY. The new canes will grow in weird directions during the first year. They get more graceful over time. Pruning after flowering allows the flower buds to form for next year. The plant CAN be pruned at other times, but it may result in a loss of flowers for one season. I normally prune mine only in spring but if branches are getting in the way, I will removed them right down to the soil at any time.
I am in the process of cutting down a huge Forsythia in the outer corner of the back yard of my town house. The house was built in , and the Forsythia may be that old. It has always blossomed beautifully, and could be seen from Google satellite views. However, as you so correctly warn, it got out of control. It was a good 10 or 11 feet high, and had spread out with numerous branches tip rooting in a circle around the center about 10 or 12 feet from the center.
This year I noticed that the back half seemed to have a lot of dead branches, so I decided to drastically cut it back. It has taken days, as I cut long branches into 6 to 12 inch pieces to fill those large lawn clipping bags, 8 of them so far. My questions is, will anything grow from the old main stems?
They are trunks, as much as 3 inches in diameter, gnarled and wooden. I will have to use a saw to cut back the last 3 or 4 feet. Or is it too late and they will die? If so, I guess I will have to dig them out, which could be a big job.
Also, are the tip rooted babies worth saving? I have cut most of those stems that grew straight up back to 12 to 18 inches. I really only want one nice plant in the corner as the yard is small. Is it possible to send you photos? From my experience, every cane that I cut back to just above ground level re-grew just above the cut area to produce more additional healthy canes. I've never had a forsythia with such a huge trunk at the base to say exactly, just my observation of each of the canes I have cut myself.
In my experience, all my tip rooted plants could be dug up and planted elsewhere and will make new plants. Great article! I'm planning to rehabilitate a gigantic forsythia in a corner of my back yard and plant it all along my ' back chainlink fence to let it be itself and hopefully help keep deer from jumping the fence.
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