Forsythias are very attractive to behold. They are large bushes with flowers that are bright yellow in color and sprouts in the early spring season. Pruning you gives room for each stem to grow out.

After the Forsythia blooms, pruning it in the spring season allows the Forsythia to produce many flowers. To ensure you put overgrown plants in their place, prune them in the fall, summer, or winter.

When you prune your Forsythia once a year, your plants will look beautiful and stay in a good state of health.

Here are some tips you can follow when you want to prune your Forsythia plant

1. After the Forsythia plant starts blooming in the spring, prune them

When your flowers begin to turn yellow and start to fall off, know that it is time for the next leaves to grow.

At this time, the plants begin to develop the bud for the following year. And through the fall and winter, the plant still carries this bud.

This makes it the best time to prune your Forsythia plant.

2. To reduce the number of flowers, prune in the summer, fall, or winter

If you prune your Forsythia plant after the springtime, the next season it grows, the number of leaves reduces.

  •  This is a good practice when you have overgrown plants
  •  Although for the season you pruned, your flowers may not bloom as expected, but in the next season, you will see the results of your pruning.

3. Avoid pruning your Forsythia plant when it is still young (when the plant is one to three years old)

For the young Forsythia plant, it needs little or no pruning. It is only when they are matured that you can start to prune them once a year. To keep the original shape of the plant, you’ll have to prune the stems yearly.

  •  Let the plants take their natural course. This will help it firmly root its system
  •  The tallest stems are the oldest ones. When you get rid of them, you can reduce the height of the shrub
  •  From the ground cut three to four inches
  •  Only practice this when the plants mature to five to six years old. This way, pruning won’t have a heavy effect on them

4. If you want to urge more growth, cut the stems to twelve inches

To cut your large stem, use a pair of loppers or a fine-tooth handsaw to cut twelve inches and leave about one inch of the stem.

This allows for more new stems to grow from the branch.

  •  Trimming will help to reduce the height of your Forsythia plant

5. To maintain the shape of the plant, remove branches low to the ground

Forsythia plants grow their branches towards the base. Since most flowers bloom at the canopy of the plant, this does not give the plant any shape.

Use your pruning shears to cut these plants and to reshape the plants. Cut in a place where the branches sprout out other stems.

6. Remove dead, bent, or split stems to keep your plants in good health

With age, perennial plants produce few dead branches. And also, these dense stems may begin to rub against each other.

If you just trimmed a stem, a new split stem may grow to replace the item you’ve cut.

In those instances that occur as the plant grows, it can take away the nutrients of the plants and expose the plant to injection.

  •  If you take note of the stems growing inwards and not outwards, you can prune these as well. Remove bent and split stems as it helps to retain the look of your shrub.

7. Cut branches back to their point of origin to thin out the canopy

Remove the excess branches towards the top of your plant using your pruning shears or your loppers. When you trim this, it helps to get rid of bulk and also preserve the shape of your Forsythia plant.

Trim the branches that grow inwards, crossed branches, tall branches, and branches that are rubbing against each other.

  •  When you remove these branches, it shows the natural shape of your plant. Trimming your Forsythia gives room for light and air in the shrub and also makes it healthy.

8. If the plants are overgrown, crop the stem to four to five inches

Use your loppers to cut your stem to the ground, making a cut of about four to five inches from the ground. This will enable the new shoots to grow. This practice is applicable if only your plant is too overgrown.

After making the cut, you can also get rid of excess branches to keep your Forsythia plant open.

  •  Make these trims in late winter or early spring for best results
  •  For the current season and the next season after pruning, your flower will not bloom much
  •  After few years of pruning, you will see the results of your pruning.

General tips

  •  When pruning, wear protective clothing like gloves, goggles, respirators, etc.
  •  Don’t prune more than one-third of your Forsythia plants.
  •  When pruning, and you are in need of a ladder, always ask someone to spot you.
  •  Prune your Forsythia plant once a year when matured.

Warnings

  •  Do not leave your Forsythia plant uncut as it can get very large and even take over your garden
  •  Do not trim your Forsythia plant into a hedge. This can cause the branches to fall off, and the plants may even produce fewer leaves. Rather than doing this, let it grow outwards. This is because Forsythia is hedge-shaped requires pruning more than once
  •  Do not cut the top of your Forsythia with a hedge clipper. Although this process may remove the bulk faster, your plants will overgrow where it is cut.

Conclusion

In this post, we have seen several tips you can use to prune your Forsythia plant, general tips to take when pruning.

Also, we have considered the warning you must avoid and also the major things you will need for pruning your Forsythia plant.

When you make use of the information found in this article, you will be sure to cultivate and maintain a beautiful Forsythia plant with its natural shape.

Thank you so much for your time reading this article and if you have any questions please leave your comment below and I’ll be happy to write back to you.