Forsythia

There is a short story with this one. This spring we did some landscape demolition. This forsythia was one of the victims....at first I was going to have it removed and hauled away but then decided to hold on to it. The tree was dug and then placed back in the planting hole and heeled in....I plan to let it grow out for some time before putting into a training container...so far all the trunks look viable. I would like to solicit other's experience with this species....I have not located too much info. so far. Thanks in advance. It was planted as nursery stock 17 years ago and was about 7 feet in height before work began.

Regards,
Tom

All I can offer is that I have a couple in my growing beds. They have responded well to repeated hard cutting back but produce very little in the way of flowers now, concentrating on putting on new growth instead.

I have them in my yard and they flower from new growth. Well, late season growth from the buds that form mid-summer on. So, if you are pruning throughout the summer through fall you are likely cutting out next season's flower buds.

It's hard not to do though because even if you prune to mid-summer and stop the shoots will be long next spring which sort of kills the bonsai profile.

I'm about to dig one of mine up that is struggling in the yard. Looks much like the one just posted.

Tom,
I had a couple old ones that were all bug eaten several years ago. They did well even though hollowed and ravaged. Eventually sold them.
One thing I advise is to seal the hollow holes in the bigger branches where cut to keep water out.

Dale

I grow a few forsythia which I dug from the garden some years ago. They can certainly take the harsh treatment with ease and seem to produce abundant fibrous roots very quickly. Mine are very much still in the training stage but flower abundantly every year. They seem to throw out lots of water shoots which I cut in half during the growing season then remove in winter. The wood seems to set very quickly so wiring is best done while the wood is still pliable.
Craig

lots of info here http://reiners-bonsai-blog.blogspot.com/
andy

On the road to recovery and growing...

Was this the only one you dug up,and when did you dig it up? I ask because I got a group of about a dozen or so lilacs this spring.A university near where I live,was clearing land for a parking garage.There were a group of lilacs that they had dug up.I was allowed to haul them all away.These being lilacs,there were clumps of many individual smaller plants,over twenty in all.Some were over ten feet tall.The buds had begun to burst,but they were not fully leafed out.I planted them all,but only one survived,and then after dying back to about 18".

Good day....Regarding this forsythia, it was part of some landscape demolition that we had done in early spring. The tree was fully leafed out at the time and about 7 feet in height. It was cut back to within about a foot or so of ground level. After digging it out of the ground I backfilled the hole and heeled the tree back in for the remainder of this growing season. I plan to place it into a large training container in the spring of 2011 (pending survival of the winter). Hope this helps. Good luck with your lilacs...

Regards,
Tom

The tree continues to recover well this summer...had to remove a couple of non-viable trunks.

Regards,
Tom

Here is the tree as was recently potted up....hoping to see a lot of growth this season.

Regards,
Tom

Looks good Tom. Lots of room in that pot for bulking up. I would think about removing the branch at the bottom facing the front.

TOM,,A long process but you made it work!! you did a great job with the pruning ,,it looks good in the pot..i love the flowers on these.. i would also think about removeing that front branch imho.the foliage will cover the trunk i think..good job take care john

I have two small forsythia that were rescued after my wife ran over them with the lawn mower. I have grown them for two full years and they are very tough trees. They like lots of water. In the Summeres, here, I resorted to sitting them on trays filled with stones and water. This helped to keep them from drying out. I use a very porous soil and have been getting good root growth. First year cuttings bloom for me in the second season (see left in the pot). The photo is a tree that I'm developing into an exposed root tree. I have since pruned it back.

I got mine out of a neighbours skip after they did a garden clearance and were throwing everything away. Unfortunatly, it had all been sitting in the full sun for about 4 hours, during a very hot summer and was very dry [so it was sometime ago that we had some sun]

We collected several shrubs, but this was the only one that survived, so it just shows how resilient they are as a species. It started off about 3 foot tall.

The photo is a few years old and sorrry about the backdrop. The branches are very brittle and grow slowly, so it is taking sometime to try and get into a good shape. I have to root prune every year because they grow so many, it pushes itself out of the pot.
Paul

Paul, lovely tree!

Thanks Todd

It's getting there, but it is soooooo slow. I may run out of years.....

Paul

I uprooted several when redesigning a planting bed at home. Hadnt planned to save anything, but one gnarly looking stump seemed to have an interesting shape, so I put it in some crushed granite I had and watered it. In less than 2 weeks it bloomed, and has since had a styling and is the easiest thing to take care of that I own. Really hardy and tough. Full sun, it doesnt care if it gets too dry, or gets hammered by a week's worth of downpours. I think they are fun because they are a bit unusual.
Have fun with it and enjoy it's blooms.

Breathing a little bit easier now, as growth is starting to pick up...

Regards,
Tom

After some further growing out and initial wiring.

I would cut off the first branch on the left, too straight compared to the rest of the lines.

TOM,,, It is looking better and better now... didn,t you start this one last year ???I looked but can,t find a good trunk... take care john

Yes, John....thanks for your kind words....I dug it last year...this is the first year of growth in a training container...I am hoping for a clump style from this one eventually....it was grown in the ground for 18 years from nursery stock.

Best regards,
Tom

About midsummer, after further growth and some more wiring...
Regards
Tom

Any chance this tree is still around?