Forsythia Wars

There is a lot to be said about forsythia, some good, some not as much. Our forsythia is a bush (Asian in origin and in the olive family) that produces beautiful yellow flowers in late April or early May. It was named after William Forsythe, a Scottish botanist and one of the founders of the Royal Horticultural Society. Traditionally I cut forsythia stems in late winter and bring them into the warm house in a vase of water. In a couple of weeks the flower buds open and provide a bit of color as you can see above. We appreciate the color as it gives us hope of spring on the way.

As you can see in the picture above, our forsythia bush had grown to enormous proportions. In 1978 I took cuttings from the forsythia bush at my parent’s house in Reading, Mass and planted them here in Hudson. Over the last forty years I have taken the clippers to this bush and cut it back, way back, several times. And each time the bush comes forth with new growth and years of spring flowers. Well, I decided that after about ten years, it was time for another forsythia “haircut”. This is where the “forsythia wars” comes in. It was as much work on this warm, humid day as I could handle.

Now that the terminal buds have been removed the latent buds along the stems will be able to begin to grow and fill in the bush with new green growth, I hope. Meanwhile the brush will be piled into our Tacoma to be taken to the Hudson landfill to be composted. I will keep you posted on how this works out.