GARDENING:
Bright and brassy forsythia is ready to give you an instant show
Forsythia once flourished in almost every front garden. But times change and front gardens are down in numbers. Nevertheless, the cheerful yellowflowered shrub is still a hot spring favourite — and it’s easy to see why. Foolproof, hardy and happy in any soil, forsythias are remarkably versatile. you can train them as climbers; place individuals as spring focal points, or even use them as hedging.
a few are compact enough for container culture. the rest are rangy shrubs, often with attractive arching branches.
this is an excellent time for planting forsythias. they are about to flower and will give an instant show.
if planted now, they’ll also have all summer to bulk up for a bigger, better show next March. the shrub is named after scottish botanist William Forsyth, a co-founder in 1804 of the royal horticultural society. Like jasmine and lilac, it belongs to the olive family. though unlike those beauties, the flowers lack fragrance.
there are seven species and about 30 named varieties. the four-petalled flowers on all are invariably yellow. But habits and sizes differ profoundly, from sprawling giants to dense twiggy dwarfs. all forsythias are easy to propagate, rooting readily from cuttings or by layering.
GLORIOUS DISPLAY
BeFore you buy, it’s best to see forsythias in maturity — or at least to know the ultimate size and spread of your chosen variety.
there are subtle differences in the flowers, too, not just in shades of yellow but in size, shape and floral ‘oomph’. the smallest, Forsythia viridissima Bronxensis, is perfect for pot culture.
twiggy clusters of stems grow 30 cm to 40 cm high and will help to set off spring- blooming alpines or little bulbs.
For bigger containers, Mini Gold and Golden Nugget grow to about 1.5 m with bright yellow blooms. among larger kinds, Lynwood has the rhs award of Garden Merit and the most intense yellow flowers.
they make a fantastic show, but when viewed close up, the flowers look crowded on the stems. also, their brassy yellow may not suit all tastes. First to bloom, forsythia
giraldiana produces paler flowers along 4 m stems. in a roomy garden, it could be trained on a wall or into a tree. But it’s big. the Chinese forsythia
suspensa also has pale flowers which hang prettily. the bendy growths are trainable on a pergola or high wall.
VERSATILE BEAUTY
Forsythias are happy in any reasonable soil with adequate drainage. they’ll thrive in part shade, but flower more if in sun for at least part of the day.
Problems are few. Galls, seen as warty growths, can appear and should be pruned off. they’re caused by bacteria, so always clean your secateurs.
to control size, you can prune as hard as you like. Blossom develops on stems that grew during the preceding summer. so prune immediately after flowering to produce plenty of new ones for next spring.
With forsythia hedging, a severe cut after flowering ensures rapid re-growth. though if you trim again in summer, you’ll lose next year’s flowers. so aim for an informal screen rather than a neat hedge.
in large spaces, let big forsythias grow freely. they look gorgeous in bloom. i prune brutally each May, to be sure of a flowery display the following spring.