Hi there

I have a large-ish forsythia that has got too big for the corner it is
meant to hide, and is overhanging lots of the lawn. However, I am
worried that by pruning it I will kill it, or just make it look
horrible.

The trouble is that most of the foliate and flowers are from the top,
and inside there is about 6-8 foot of brown stalks. I really need it to
be max 8 foot tall but it is nearer 12. How can I prune it back so that
it will grow from the ground up again without losing all the green
foliage for a season or two?

Cheers
ed

"Ed" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi there

I have a large-ish forsythia that has got too big for the corner it is
meant to hide, and is overhanging lots of the lawn. However, I am
worried that by pruning it I will kill it, or just make it look
horrible.

The trouble is that most of the foliate and flowers are from the top,
and inside there is about 6-8 foot of brown stalks. I really need it to
be max 8 foot tall but it is nearer 12. How can I prune it back so that
it will grow from the ground up again without losing all the green
foliage for a season or two?

Forsythia flowers on the last years growth, ie it flowers in spring, spends
summer growing new wood, and the following spring it flowers on that growth.
The best time to prune it is immediately it finishes flowering, cut it down
to about 2-3ft I would. You can prune it now, but then it almost certainly
won't flower until spring 2008.

Steve

On Nov 9, 10:55 am, "Ed" wrote:
Hi there

I have a large-ish forsythia that has got too big for the corner it is
meant to hide, and is overhanging lots of the lawn. However, I am
worried that by pruning it I will kill it, or just make it look
horrible.

The trouble is that most of the foliate and flowers are from the top,
and inside there is about 6-8 foot of brown stalks. I really need it to
be max 8 foot tall but it is nearer 12. How can I prune it back so that
it will grow from the ground up again without losing all the green
foliage for a season or two?

Cheers
ed

Prune it hard now, and you will not get flowers till 2008, however, if
you leave it to flower next spring, then prune it very hard, and again
in about August or wait till 2008 to prune again. (I always pruned hard
after flowering, and then topped the very long shoots when they had
reached the height I wanted) you will have a much smaller, bushy shrub
that will flower in 2008, so you will not have lost a year. It takes
very well to hard pruning.