Lesson 9: Forsythia

Lesson 9: Forsythia
In this lesson, I discuss the edible and medicinal value of Forsythia. It is one of our first spring flowers, and a good medicine.
https://youtu.be/d2xBFcIaRVU

I did not realize how useful forsythia could be, thank you for this video!

Forsythia prunings make excellent 'airy' chip that decomposes readily. It also is easy to propagate if one of the branches bends over and touches the ground. I've had several volunteers this spring that I had to move around. I've found local songbirds appreciate the cover my forsythia hedge provides. When the petals fall from the bush, my chickens have readily gobbled them up as they stick out from the grass visually.

Only downfall in my zone (5b) has been late frosts taking out the flower blooms leading to a lackluster visual spectacle.

Timothy Norton wrote:I did not realize how useful forsythia could be, thank you for this video!

Forsythia prunings make excellent 'airy' chip that decomposes readily. It also is easy to propagate if one of the branches bends over and touches the ground. I've had several volunteers this spring that I had to move around. I've found local songbirds appreciate the cover my forsythia hedge provides.

Only downfall in my zone (5b) has been late frosts taking out the flower blooms leading to a lackluster visual spectacle.

They also make great ribs for baskets.  I have made several forsythia and ivy baskets.

Timothy Norton wrote:I did not realize how useful forsythia could be, thank you for this video!

Forsythia prunings make excellent 'airy' chip that decomposes readily. It also is easy to propagate if one of the branches bends over and touches the ground. I've had several volunteers this spring that I had to move around. I've found local songbirds appreciate the cover my forsythia hedge provides. When the petals fall from the bush, my chickens have readily gobbled them up as they stick out from the grass visually.

Only downfall in my zone (5b) has been late frosts taking out the flower blooms leading to a lackluster visual spectacle.

My stepmom's house is overrun with forsythia and we'll be thinning them out soon. I'm hoping to save some for a few weeks and transplant them somewhere else, when I can get to the new location. Do the young volunteers have deep roots? From your experience, do you think I can dig them up and maybe put a few of them (just the bottoms of them) in a plastic bag  with some dirt, keep them moist, and they'll keep for a few weeks like that? Sort of using bags as temporary pots? I did that with irises once, but it was clear I got plenty of bulb/tuber, and they like being partly out of the soil. They sat for a couple months before a friend came and got them, and although they looked pretty questionable they did grow back nicely for him.

Hi Kim,

I have, quite literally, grabbed a division at the base and pulled it out of the ground and had it recover by sticking it in some dirt. If it will spend some time unplanted, I would think having some soil around it would keep it for a couple weeks.

Kim Wills wrote:

Timothy Norton wrote:I did not realize how useful forsythia could be, thank you for this video!

Forsythia prunings make excellent 'airy' chip that decomposes readily. It also is easy to propagate if one of the branches bends over and touches the ground. I've had several volunteers this spring that I had to move around. I've found local songbirds appreciate the cover my forsythia hedge provides. When the petals fall from the bush, my chickens have readily gobbled them up as they stick out from the grass visually.

Only downfall in my zone (5b) has been late frosts taking out the flower blooms leading to a lackluster visual spectacle.

My stepmom's house is overrun with forsythia and we'll be thinning them out soon. I'm hoping to save some for a few weeks and transplant them somewhere else, when I can get to the new location. Do the young volunteers have deep roots? From your experience, do you think I can dig them up and maybe put a few of them (just the bottoms of them) in a plastic bag  with some dirt, keep them moist, and they'll keep for a few weeks like that? Sort of using bags as temporary pots? I did that with irises once, but it was clear I got plenty of bulb/tuber, and they like being partly out of the soil. They sat for a couple months before a friend came and got them, and although they looked pretty questionable they did grow back nicely for him.

They don't seem to root too deeply, but they also grow well from cuttings.  If you put them in some moist sand, even if the root gets cut, they should survive.  The bags will be find.

I have 4 forsythia that I brought home from a friend's yard and planted, but I didn't want them spreading the way they tend to. So I trained them as a single trunk. They were quite small when I got them, but 10 years later, they have decided to obey and almost never put out ground-level suckers. I don't top trim them much;  I only trim off branches that are bending toward the ground and likely to touch.

Yes, it was troublesome for a few years, but it was worth it as I truly love the look of small trees.

I offered that anyone who was willing to dig mine out could have it.  The guy took three days to dig it out, but he finally got it and I don't have to worry about keeping it in check.  Sure, it was pretty for about a week, but then it looked like a rat's nest the rest of the year!  It was in an area that I don't visit very often at all, and by the time I did, it will have tip-rooted all over the place.  I really came to hate the thing!
I replaced it with some Cornelian cherry--a well-behaved plant that not only blooms earlier and with the same yellow, but it also fruits in the late summer/fall with beautiful red fruits that are almost translucent like rubies.  It's structure is lovely and its foliage is too.  
My thinking is that if I want some forsythia, there will be plenty of people who will be willing to give me some; meanwhile, I won't have to deal with its troublesome nature!

I planted some on the top edge of our lawn to bar the view from the driveway. Done very well. The down slope of that hill are daylilies and wild raspberries. The deer like to nest in them in the summer/fall (first time this year? Last night.)

I need to prune it back for the year soon,  but I wanted a wall/hedge and I got it!

My Cornelian cherries are still young so they haven't bloomed so fully yet, but apparently they are honey-scented when in bloom, as early as February.    They are not a true cherry, but rather in the dogwood family.  They, too, have many medicinal virtues. Numerous studies have demonstrated that Cornelian cherries may exhibit a broad spectrum of biological activities, including antioxidant, antibacterial, anticancer, anticoagulant, antidiabetic, anti‐inflammatory, antiparasitic, lipid‐lowering, and cardio‐protective activities.  My point is not to "dis" forsythia, but for those looking for alternatives, this plant seems to check all of the boxes: Early color, fragrance, year-round interest, food and medicine producer for people/wildlife, easy/no care and well-behaved.  I copied a picture off the internet and think I've attached it; we'll see if it took when I post this.