On Thu, 27 Feb 2003 10:22:12 +0000, Rhiannon Macfie Miller
wrote:

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?

Hi,

Others have commented on the fact that Forsythia flowers on older
wood and should be pruned immediately after flowering.

If left to its own devices F. becomes a veritable thicket - very
tangled and thereby somewhat destroying the potential of having
graceful arcs festooned with flowers.

I think the overall strategy is to cut away to almost ground level
the wood which is already three or four years old. This will encourage
shoots from the base. Don't be afraid to do this to old wood in the
centre of the shrub - in fact this opens it out nicely and prevents
the development of thicket in the centre.

Next up, of the next oldest wood, shorten a *selection* (your choice
through experience how many - perhaps one on three) to about a third
or a half. Leave all of last seasons growth - bearing in mind that
this is what you can be sure to carry flowers the next year. Some of
the growth which will spurt into action after the pruning may also
mature sufficiently to bear flowers.

I am wondering if an F. can be trained into a standard so that it
sprays from the top of a sturdy single bole.

If I have given any advice which is wrong or misguided I trust
someone will jump in.

Grow a little garden

Hussein