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?

Rhiannon

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

Methinks you already suspect where you have gone wrong.
Forsythia flowers on old wood ie last years wood.
Try and restrict pruning to immediately after flowering, July is a bit late
as you have found out. It can be a bit of a nuisance leaving the shrub
growing but that is where the latent flower buds are. Jim 2
"Rhiannon Macfie Miller" wrote in message
...
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?

Rhiannon

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

Hello Rhiannon

In article ,
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?

July was a bit late to prune the common forsythias, but there are are several
different forsythias. Most of them if you cut them back after flowering, they
make nice new shoots which flower the next Spring.

However there is at least one which I inherited from my father that flowers
on 2 year old wood only. With this one if you want a display every year you
have to cut back half of the branches each year.

I do not know the variety name, but it is definitely worth growing. The
flowers are actually on short laterals from the two year old wood, so you get
magnificent flowering spikes.

John

--
EurIng J Rye CEng FIEE Electrical Engineering Consultant
18 Wentworth Close Hadleigh IPSWICH IP7 5SA England
Tel No 01473 827126 http://web.ukonline.co.uk/jrye/index.html
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"Jim Paterson" wrote in message
...
Methinks you already suspect where you have gone wrong.
Forsythia flowers on old wood ie last years wood.
Try and restrict pruning to immediately after flowering, July is a bit
late
as you have found out. It can be a bit of a nuisance leaving the shrub
growing but that is where the latent flower buds are. Jim 2
"Rhiannon Macfie Miller" wrote in message
...
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?

Rhiannon

And if you stick the stem prunings into soil, they root very easily, and you
will get new forsythia shrubs - if you have space for them.

Bevan

Rhiannon Macfie Miller wrote in message ...
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?

Rhiannon

If you cut back after flowering and then cut a few inches off each new
long shoot about mid July it will form flowering shoots all along the
first new growth.

Mike
www.british-naturism.org.uk

On Mon, 3 Mar 2003 22:36:51 -0000, "Michael Berridge"
wrote:



If you cut back after flowering and then cut a few inches off each new
long shoot about mid July it will form flowering shoots all along the
first new growth.

Mike
www.british-naturism.org.uk

Nice one! I think I know why too.... meristems, apical dominance,
auxins and giberellins.

Been reading up on my botany ... Heh, heh. I don't think I will
ever see plants in quite the same way again.

Proof's in the pudding though. I'll try your suggestion this year.

Thankee


Hussein
"For of all gainful professions, nothing
is better, nothing more pleasing,
nothing more delightful, nothing better
becomes a well-bred man than
agriculture"

$$$$$$ Cicero $$$$$$