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Forsythia. Love it or hate it?

Apr, 2014
by Andrea Nilsen Morse
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I have a love/hate relationship with forsythia.  It’s blooming right  now and I love that it signals that Spring has finally arrived in New England.

If I were honest with myself, though, I’m actually not a huge fan of the plant.  Its yellow, while bright and fresh, is also a bit garish, especially against the otherwise still brown and grey landscape.  As a plant in the residential garden, I rarely use it (unless it’s a real favorite of a client’s).  It is a leggy shrub that really only shows off for this brief period of time in the spring.  To control the uncontrollable habit, many people prune forsythia like a hedge, which I think just adds insult to injury.

Naturalized planting of forsythia, daffodils and Ilex glabra in North Point Park

There is, however, a particular application where I can’t help but be impressed by forsythia, and that is in naturalized, mass plantings.  In a space that is large enough to have lots (and lots) of forsythia, unsheared, in their natural form, it can be quite spectacular.  Plant it on a hillside, intermixed with evergreens and bulbs whose green foliage helps tone down the highlighter yellow flowers.  It looks spectacular underplanted with yellow daffodils, which happen to bloom at the same time.

The yellow daffodils complement the forsythia and provide some greenery around the leggy shrubs

In these mass plantings, forsythia really works and is a welcome sign of Spring.  Plant it in mass, intermixed with green foliage, and you might start to love this plant…. just a bit.  

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