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I planted some young forsythia and they have pencil thin canes that are about 6 feet tall.
Can I shorten them to three or four feet? I was told that if you shorten a cane, two branches will grow from the cut end and I don't know if that is true and wouldn't want a deformed forsythia.
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I realize the normal pruning routine is to remove the oldest canes from the bottom however I am looking to shorten the plants to gain lower strength. Thanks
The optimal time to prune is when the flowers have started to drop off, in the spring. It is an old wood bloomer so that is where the new growth starts. You could trim them, but the natural beauty of the plant is the draping that it exhibits. I would trim minimally now, but it will grow eventually.
^ agreed. Whatever you do, don't shear them to make them look "tidy". If you want something to shear and shape, plant something else.
IMHO, forsythia are best used as specimen plants out away from the house, where you can let the canes grow into arching spring beauties, and ignore their ugly appearance the rest of the year.
Yes, I did plant them away from the house and close to the property line on the side and back to create a screen. The only reason I even questioned pruning them now is because they are very long and thin canes.
Guessing the growers fertilize them like crazy to get some quick size happening. Thanks
long and thin are what you want. IIRC, more canes will develop from the base with time.
Enjoy, and congrats to you for knowing how to use a popular, low maintenance shrub.
I also just finished planting a Viburnum and was surprised how inexpensive it was compared to some other shrubs I have been buying lately. The white flowers on the Viburnum will look great.
If you want more in the future, bend those long canes over to touch the ground. You will probably need to place a rock on where it touches the ground, maybe leave 8-10 inches sticking out the other side of the rock. New bush, maybe as early as next season.
Keeping some of the long canes together with a rope for down and will let them be for now until they grow.
Good point about the propagation technique. The forsythia plants are like weeds. I have cut and stuck branches in the ground that have grown into bushes!
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