Better than Forsythia
The Forsythia is honored April 6 at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden with plants given free to garden members. It’s a point of local identity: In 1940 a garden benefactor, Mrs. Edward C Blum, was instrumental in having forsythia declared the official flower of Brooklyn. It was “…imbued with a message of brotherhood, unity and understanding…” she said.
Forsythia is at its best grown in full sun and allowed to develop into the fountain shape it naturally assumes. The usual cultivars are in the 8 foot by 8 foot range -- too big for most Brooklyn gardens -- so they are routinely hacked with hedge trimmers into manageable shapes. Treated thus they bloom poorly; and because Forsythia is undistinguished after its April bloom, it becomes an eyesore. You see these sad plants all over the borough.
If you must have Forsythia, be sure you have a sunny spot, pick a cultivar suited to the space to have, and prune it by removing entire old branches at their base. Smallish cultivars like ‘Gold Tide’ are better suited to most Brooklyn gardens. There’s one called ‘Bronxensis’ that’s smaller still, practically a ground cover.
If your garden is shaded at all, I recommend you forego Forsythia entirely and grown another east Asian shrub, Corylopsis pauciflora, the Buttercup Winterhazel. It blooms with the forsythia and hangs its pale yellow flowers like bells from the twigs. This poised 4 to 6 foot shrub is better suited to city gardens. Its neat foliage colors gold in autumn.
The Forsythia is honored April 6 at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden with plants given free to garden members. It’s a point of local identity: In 1940 a garden benefactor, Mrs. Edward C Blum, was instrumental in having forsythia declared the official flower of Brooklyn. It was “…imbued with a message of brotherhood, unity and understanding…” she said.
Forsythia is at its best grown in full sun and allowed to develop into the fountain shape it naturally assumes. The usual cultivars are in the 8 foot by 8 foot range -- too big for most Brooklyn gardens -- so they are routinely hacked with hedge trimmers into manageable shapes. Treated thus they bloom poorly; and because Forsythia is undistinguished after its April bloom, it becomes an eyesore. You see these sad plants all over the borough.
If you must have Forsythia, be sure you have a sunny spot, pick a cultivar suited to the space to have, and prune it by removing entire old branches at their base. Smallish cultivars like ‘Gold Tide’ are better suited to most Brooklyn gardens. There’s one called ‘Bronxensis’ that’s smaller still, practically a ground cover.
If your garden is shaded at all, I recommend you forego Forsythia entirely and grown another east Asian shrub, Corylopsis pauciflora, the Buttercup Winterhazel. It blooms with the forsythia and hangs its pale yellow flowers like bells from the twigs. This poised 4 to 6 foot shrub is better suited to city gardens. Its neat foliage colors gold in autumn.
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