All right, my shrubs!
Forsythia... the spring-flowering beauty with an unlikely link to game show veteran Brucie
ONE is among our bestloved early flowering shrubs and the other is an entertainer, comedian and television presenter who has long been considered a national treasure. On the face of it, you wouldn’t think that forsythia and Sir Bruce Forsyth had anything in common apart from a vaguely similar name. Yet both are much more closely linked than most people realise. The gorgeous plant admired for its yellow flowers that appear on bare branches before its leaves in spring was actually named after the veteran showman’s greatgreat-great-great-grandfather.
Like his descendant, William Forsyth enjoyed a long and glittering career. He was a founder member of the Horticultural Society (forerunner of the Royal Horticultural Society), curator of the Chelsea Physic Garden, and looked after the gardens at Kensington Palace for George III.
His reputation in horticulture spread beyond our shores. When Norwegian botanist Martin Vahl decided that a shrub that had originally been classified as a lilac was actually something completely different, he dubbed it forsythia in honour of the British gardener.
Mainly native to eastern Asia, with one species found in south-east Europe, forsythias grow wild in woodland, on mountains, in scrub and even on cliffs.
In gardens they are perfect in mixed borders, as freestanding specimens or trained against walls. Taller ones make excellent hedges.
In the past, most were too vigorous for pots, but several compact forms have appeared in the past few years. By far the most desirable is Forsythia ‘Fiesta’, a 3ft gem with golden blooms that appear before green, cream and yellow variegated leaves held on reddish stems.
The first forsythia to arrive in our country was Forsythia viridissima, an erect shrub discovered in China by Scottish plant-hunter Robert Fortune in 1844. On his fifth and last trip to China about 16 years later, he found a remarkable form with pendulous branches that was later named Forsythia suspensa var. fortunei.
It may have been new to Fortune in the late 1800s, but weeping forsythia had been a part of traditional Chinese medicine for centuries. Its flowers are still used to make a detox tea, while its unripe yellow fruit and seeds are ground together to make a substance known as lian kiao. This is taken to combat everything from headaches to intestinal worms. AlthoughAl h hh there are 11 wildild species,i Fortune’s pair are the most important. Both were grown at Gottingen botanic garden in Germany, where a hybrid between the two was found as a chance seedling in the late 19th Century. Forsythia x intermedia has gone on to become parent of more than 20 garden-worthy varieties.
In total almost 100 cracking forsythias are available in Britain. Ranging in height from 3ft to 12ft, most will turn heads for about two weeks in mid-March, but by picking a selection of different ones you can enjoy a display from late February until early April.
Found in a cottage garden in Northern Ireland in 1935, Forsythia x intermedia ‘Lynwood Variety’ can grow up to 10ft tall and produces masses of rich yellow flowers, while F. x intermedia ‘Karl Sax’ has canary-yellow blooms and leaves that turn purple in autumn. Launched in the 1950s, F. suspensa ‘Nymans’ has soft yellow flowers and brownish purple branches – it makes the perfect wall shrub. A recent introduction from France, F. x intermedia ‘Week-End’ carries a mass of large yellow flowers on erect branches. It grows up to only 6ft, so is a good choice for smaller gardens. Even more compact are F. ‘Arnold Dwarf’ and F. x intermedia Minigold. Both eventually hit 3ft, so are suitable for containers or rock gardens.
Forsythias prefer moist, free-draining ground but are tolerant of most soils apart from really heavy clay that tends to turn rock solid in summer and remains boggy all winter. They’ll put on their best display in full sun, but can cope with dappled shade.
THEY are great in a mixed border with other shrubs and perennials as they are dull once flowers start to fade. Place very tall ones at the back of displays, and shorter forms in the middle. As their eventual spread is equal to their height, leave enough space for them to flourish.
Another way of using forsythia is to establish an informal, flowering hedge. Pot-grown plants can be planted at any time of the year, but it’s more economical to use bare-root specimens, which are available between late autumn and early spring. Set plants 18in apart and remove the top third of shoots to encourage bushy growth.
A question I’m often asked when giving talks at gardening clubs is when to prune forsythia. It’s one of the jobs that seems to confuse gardeners. The problem with this is that pruning at the wrong time will result in a poor floral performance the following spring.
The rule is to keep forsythia within bounds and encourage lots of fresh shoots by pruning lightly after flowering. As these shrubs flower on the previous year’s wood – setting buds soon after these shoots start to grow – cutting at any other time will remove embryonic blooms.