Growing And Using Forsythia In The Garden Landscape

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Forsythia - the sun in the garden

A separately planted plant - a tapeworm - always attracts attention. When creating your own garden, solitary plantings are a very bright accent that fits both strictly regular and landscape styles.

When choosing a plant, it is very important to consider its future shape and size. In a small garden or in a limited garden area, a large tree will look ridiculous and inappropriate, just like a small bush will be "lost" on a large, even lawn. It is important that the tapeworm does not obscure the view, does not take away the sun from other garden plantings, and, most importantly, this plant needs to be truly pleasing to the eye.

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Now on sale there is a wide selection of ornamental shrubs suitable for specimen planting, but I want to draw your attention to only one - forsythia, which in our North-West is one of the earliest flowering. For a single, isolated planting near the porch or at the entrance to a house or garden, nothing better can be thought of. Forsythia already at the end of April, like a fragrant golden fire, welcomes the onset of spring with wild flowering. Such an abundance of flowers is not only pleasing to the eye, but also pleases the heart, informing that spring has come.

Once again, forsythia dresses up in a bright golden-purple outfit in the fall, so this single bush can become your favorite, opening the season with you and accompanying it with you. In order for forsythia to feel comfortable in your garden, there are a number of simple rules.

The place for landing is always bright and sunny, not flooded with melt water and early free from under the snow. You should not plant forsythia in a place that is blown by all winds. Firstly, in spring, an icy wind can "burn" the flowers, and, secondly, forsythia has very fragile wood (like honeysuckle) with a loose core, and from strong wind, irreparable creases of large branches are possible.

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Forsythia is demanding on soil fertility, it does not tolerate acidic, heavy and damp soils, so the planting pit should be filled thoroughly: near a bucket of humus or rotted manure, a liter can of ash and full mineral fertilizer. If the soil on the site is acidic, then up to 500 g of chalk can be added here. It's okay if, as a result, the soil becomes slightly alkaline - forsythia is only for the good.

Planting holes are made 60x60 cm in size, one and a half bayonet deep of a shovel - such a volume of prepared soil will be comfortable for forsythia for the rest of its life. At the onset of each new spring, it is recommended to add a liter can of ash and half a bucket of organic matter to the trunk circle. Forsythia is also responsive to fertilizing with mineral fertilizers.

Even before flowering, it would be good to feed it with a full mineral fertilizer, for example, 100 g of nitroammofoska per trunk circle, combining this top dressing with loosening. The same dose of complex fertilizer is applied at the end of flowering: at the end of May - beginning of June, to help the plant regain strength.

At the end of summer, it is necessary to take care of the best ripening of forsythia shoots, phosphorus-potassium supplements (100 g of double superphosphate and 50 g of potassium salt in the trunk circle) will help. Such feeding at the very end of summer significantly increases the frost resistance of the plant. In general, in terms of frost resistance, various types of forsythia differ greatly.

In the catalog of ornamental shrubs for landscape designers, only one species is generally recommended for our region, namely intermediate forsythia. It is a hybrid between two other species, and one of its parental forms, hanging forsythia, is also characterized by acceptable frost resistance.

Hanging forsythia has a well-known and quite common form of fortsuns in our country, which has become so popular precisely because of its frost resistance. Young bushes only in the first 2-3 years of life need the autumn bending of the branches so that they hibernate under the snow, and then the plant quickly adapts and does not need further shelter.

Another winter-hardy species is ovoid forsythia. On its basis, very compact cultivators have been created, the adult bushes of which do not exceed 1.5 meters in height.

Probably, using forsythia in decorative specimen plantings, one should choose not only its winter-hardy species, such as hanging (or drooping) forsythia, ovate forsythia or intermediate forsythia, but also cultivators of these species, which have a compact, low bush shape.

Forsythia is a fast growing shrub, and by pruning with either the outer or inner buds, you can easily give the bush a more spreading or tighter shape. But, of course, forsythia is not suitable for a strict molded haircut, although it is not afraid of pruning.

Dried, frozen or broken branches should be cut out; this should be done in late spring or early summer, when the hope of their revival finally disappears. Since forsythia blooms before the leaves open, it sometimes happens that only flower buds are damaged by frost, and the branch stands naked and "lifeless" until the leaves extend.

Forsythia is rejuvenated by planting old branches "on a stump" in early spring after the snow melts, i.e. simply cut the branches to ground level and new shoots will grow back during the season. To protect weakly winter-resistant forms and species from freezing in winter, they practice carefully bending the branches to the ground and covering them with spruce branches in 2-3 layers.

In any case, the difficulties in the agrotechnology of forsythia always pay off with its unique and unlikely flowering. Together with the forsythia, a real hand sun will settle in your garden.