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12-03-2004, 10:36 PM

(Moira) wrote in message om...
(paghat) wrote in message ...
In article ,
(Beecrofter) wrote:

(mike) wrote in message
. com...
Hi all....I live in southern New Jersey...and wanted to know about
planting forsythia bushes. Just wondering a good time of year (early
spring maybe?) to plant them...and how many feet away from a stockade
fence?? And how far apart?
Any information will be great...thanks.

Spring is good, forsythia is very hardy. A good row of forsythia will
run 6-8' wide if unchecked.
If you are going to prune them regularly as a hedge then 2' from the
stockade would be OK. If you are going to let them run wild then 4' is
probably a good idea.
Are you sure you want forsythia?

The problem with forsythia is it really only looks spectacular when
allowed to go a bit wild -- it looks hideous pruned or hedged (except when
flowering) as there seems to be no way to prune it without making it look
stubby & damaged -- it's just supposed to be a very big fountaining shrub.
One permitted to get easily reach twelve feet high & wide is awesome, but
stubby ones after their brief flowering are just stubby sticks. There ARE
syringa cultivars that stay smaller if you shop carefully & look hard for
one.

Alternative choices of showy low maintenance very flowery deciduous shrubs
exist galore. Shadblow serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis) can get very
tall but easy to keep narrow & upright by clipping suckers; there are
cultivars that are naturally smaller; & the fruits that follow the white
flowers are very sweet. Or western syringa (Philadelphius lewisii) is
usually taller than it is narrow, say four feet wide & eight tall if not
often pruned; one version has double-flowers. Flowering currants are
also great choices, Ribes rubrum for lovely flowers & the best fruit,
Ribes sanguineum for the best flowers & good fruit. Yet another great
choice would be Highbush Cranberry, the best looking shrubs being Viburnum
trilobum or Viburnum sargentiana, with maple-like leaves having gorgeous
autumn colors, lacecap flowers reminiscent of hydrangea, followed by
gorgeous berries, bitter but edible

All these are deciduous, low-maintenance, & very ornamental. All can be
controlled for smaller sizes with judicious pruning, but for my taste the
only one that cannot be pruned aesthetically is the forsythia because it
is nothing but upright sticks if cut short, but a beautiful fountain of
limbs if it has a twelve-foot circle of space to fill out. In many places,
too, forsythia is very, very, very common. I love it even so, but I'd give
higher priority to other choices & add a forsythia only if there was tons
of space & room for an "extra" shrub.

-paghat the ratgirl

Plant your forsythia and allow it to grow and cascade over, but after
flowering cut back the stems that have flowered. This will keep its
size in check and guarantee you the most spectacular flower show.

I prune my forsythia to 3" from the surface of the ground, in order to
encourage other plants to grow over it and kill it. But, weedkiller
works nicely as well, I have heard.