In article , Rhiannon Macfie Miller
writes
I have a forsythia. Last year it flowered very nicely. I cut it back
sometime around July and it shot back up again -- but now there are no
flower buds on the long new shoots. There are only flowers on new short
side branches from the bits I didn`t cut back. What did I do wrong?

Some shrubs flower on old wood. I don't recall whether Forsythia is one,
but what you say suggests this. For such shrubs you either prune
immediately after flowering, or you prune some branches hard, and leave
the others alone (for pruning in a later year).

Most spring flowering shrubs should be pruned after flowering, not later
in the year.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley