How to grow Forsythia

Forsythia × intermedia · border forsythia, golden bells

Fast-growing deciduous hybrid shrub, 2–3 m tall, whose golden-yellow bell flowers open on bare branches in early spring, before the leaves. Flower buds are killed when winter falls below about −21 °C.

Quick facts

Type	Shrub
Family	Oleaceae
Light	Full sun
Frost	tolerates light frost
Where it grows	Open ground

When to plant

Planted as a young plant from a nursery while it is dormant — in early spring before the buds open, or in autumn after leaf fall.

Frost dates · When to plant

Care

Open ground

Stage	Watering	Temperature	Feeding
Growth	every 7 days	—	—
Flowering	every 7 days	—	—
Winter rest	—	—	—

Growing notes

Light

Full sun gives the most flowers; it tolerates part shade.

Soil

Fertile, loose, well-drained soil is ideal, though it tolerates poor and clay soils; in waterlogged ground the roots rot.

Care

Water weekly in dry spells. It flowers on last year's wood, so prune right after flowering; pruning after mid-July removes next spring's buds. Thin out the oldest branches at the base rather than shearing, and every three or four years cut the stems almost to the ground to renew the shrub.

Sources

Figures checked against these sources.