Forsythia quandry
 

This is the second year that forsythia have not bloomed. Midstate NY,
zone 5 ... 50 ft row ....six to eight foot high, 20+ years established
....they get trimmed back every summer by mid Aug at the latest so as
not to clip off next year's flower buds ...but parts that haven't
required trimming also haven't bloomed.

Is this environmental ie our area had winter conditions not conducive
to blooming?

TIA,
Stew Corman from sunny Endicott

You keep trimming away the flowering mechanism.
Try trimming now as you will lose nothing seeing as they are not
blooming and next year trim as soon as the flowers become a bit ratty.

Your forsythia are forming buds not too long after they flower, which
is quite early. You are definitley cutting off the buds.

Toad

You're trimming too late. Try April, or just after the blossoms
fall. In your situation, don't prune this year.

On 2 May 2005 07:28:29 -0700, wrote:

This is the second year that forsythia have not bloomed. Midstate NY,
zone 5 ... 50 ft row ....six to eight foot high, 20+ years established
...they get trimmed back every summer by mid Aug at the latest so as
not to clip off next year's flower buds ...but parts that haven't
required trimming also haven't bloomed.

Is this environmental ie our area had winter conditions not conducive
to blooming?

TIA,
Stew Corman from sunny Endicott

wrote:

This is the second year that forsythia have not bloomed. Midstate NY,
zone 5 ... 50 ft row ....six to eight foot high, 20+ years established
...they get trimmed back every summer by mid Aug at the latest so as
not to clip off next year's flower buds ...but parts that haven't
required trimming also haven't bloomed.

Stew,

1. Try cutting some of the oldest canes down to the ground.
New, younger (and likely more productive) ones will emerge.

2. Apply a little fertilizer (and water if needed ) during the
growing season.

3. As others have noted, you are pruning rather late in the
year. Best time is immediately following flowering season, so
that new growth (which will flower next spring) is not
removed.

4. Many folks (including me) think forsythia looks best if
unpruned or pruned as little as possible -- that encourages
the crazy sculptural form of the branches. I realize it
doesn't suit everyone's taste, but if you have space and
inclination for that, consider it. It can be supplemented
with #1.

Best of luck.


Mike Prager
On the North Carolina coast - Zone 8a
(Remove spam traps from email address to reply.)

Thanks Mike for your perspective.
These forsythia are part of a privacy hedge, so drastic cutback is not
an option.

However, if I were to just prune now, by mid Aug there would be 6 foot
high spikes ...every year I have pruned the same way and typically have
full flowering except these last two seasons.

I am tempted to trim now and not touch it again just to see what
happens ...but I think it is environmental, since I have not seen any
decent displays anywhere in our area

Stew Corman

If "environmental" means you cutting all the flower buds off in the
fall, then yes, its environmental.

In article ,
Mike Prager ?kill-spam?mprager@?alum.?mit.?edu wrote:

wrote:

This is the second year that forsythia have not bloomed. Midstate NY,
zone 5 ... 50 ft row ....six to eight foot high, 20+ years established
...they get trimmed back every summer by mid Aug at the latest so as
not to clip off next year's flower buds ...but parts that haven't
required trimming also haven't bloomed.

Stew,

1. Try cutting some of the oldest canes down to the ground.
New, younger (and likely more productive) ones will emerge.

2. Apply a little fertilizer (and water if needed ) during the
growing season.

3. As others have noted, you are pruning rather late in the
year. Best time is immediately following flowering season, so
that new growth (which will flower next spring) is not
removed.

4. Many folks (including me) think forsythia looks best if
unpruned or pruned as little as possible -- that encourages
the crazy sculptural form of the branches. I realize it
doesn't suit everyone's taste, but if you have space and
inclination for that, consider it. It can be supplemented
with #1.

Best of luck.


Mike Prager
On the North Carolina coast - Zone 8a
(Remove spam traps from email address to reply.)

I have heard that if there isn't a lot of snow cover to protect the
flower buds--which were formed last year--and the weather is extremely
cold for an extended period (as it was here), the buds will die.

That's why so many forsythias here in sunny-at-the-moment Central NY are
blooming just around the base or in small patches--the areas that were
protected by snow.

Amy

Of course, what I have heard could be completely wrong...