Grow Your Own Magazine

We have a rather large and overgrown forsythia in our garden - I have hard pruned it in the past but it just springs back and grows some more.

I hate to 'kill' plants - is there any other way to sort out this monster? It is taking over - we have been here 2yrs and its very 'woody' at the base. I have asked OH to dig it up as it takes too much space and we can't walk around one of our veg beds because of it! But if there is an alternative???

Jan

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Jan A novice gardener - first year of growing

Ours was killed by the council coming in to the garden to sort out a problem with the drains! I liked the forsythia and although it was long and leggy it didn't matter as it was mostly buried in the hedge. I was quite sad when it didn't come back after them driving a mini-digger through the hedge.

You could try cutting yours right down to the ground - it might shoot from the base and give a more manageable plant. My theory is, if it is in the way and it dies from that kind of treatment, then it is out of the way at least.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Its very hard to kill a Forsythia. I have one in my garden which my father planted years ago and in spite of my best efforts cutting it to the ground it keeps throwing up new shoots. I think the only way to get rid of it is to dig up the whole lot.

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And when you're back stops aching,
And you're hands begin to harden.
You will find yourself a partner,
In the glory of the garden.

Rudyard Kipling.

When its flowering its like rays of sunshine at a driech time of year and its wonderful, but the rest of the year its short time of glory is forgotten and its fairly horrible!

I've two ancient narled ones in the back and I got so fed up with them I chopped one right back to the ground last winter. Thought that would be that but its grown back over the summer and refuses to be tamed. It is a bit more managable certainly as the horrible woody bits are out and its new shoots to prune back, but still a pest. The other one's main branch cracked off bar a sliver in the gales in spring and its still going strong!!

Good Luck.

PJB

I think its going! Your quite right about its wonderful colour in the spring, but unless I go and sit in the far corner of my garden I would only see it on occasions! (We have a log cabin which obscures the view from the house abit!)

I might go and see what B&Q have on offer - my sister said its not really the time to start planting shrubs, but I said if they sell them, then I'm in with half a chance I have quite abit of bareness on my beds where I had flowers in the summer - the chickens have taken advantage but I have noticed they have left the shrubs alone, so its more shrubs for me!

Jan

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Jan A novice gardener - first year of growing

I've seen it treated like a hedge. If you prune it hard to the size you want and then keep trimming it as you would a hedge, it will flower, not as profusely mind, but in a much more controlled manner. It flowers on the previous year's wood so as you can see, if you give it a very early spring pruning you'll lose flowers but a sharp haircut at the end of the growing season should leave enough current year's wood for next spring's flowers. Worth a go if the alternative is killing it!

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Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 30th - Mr Stinky's Excellent Adventure (and a Christmas Cake)

Trouble is if you prune it hard, it will think it's being killed and will then put on a spurt of growth to make up for it. Forsythias flower on old wood, so you need to prune out completely some old stems (this time of year is good as there shouldn't be too much new growth now). Next year prune out the flowered shoots and trim back gently. Next autumn you can take out another lot of old wood and hopefully regenerate the whole thing without it going mad.

I broke off some long branches to stake up some plants. Every piece i stuck in the ground rooted. I had a jon getting rid of it.

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And when you're back stops aching,
And you're hands begin to harden.
You will find yourself a partner,
In the glory of the garden.

Rudyard Kipling.