Forsythia Linwood Gold: planting and care
Forsythia Linwood Gold is prized for its beautiful yellow flowers that bloom on bare branches immediately after the snow melts. At the end of flowering, leaves and shoots of the first year appear, which will bloom next spring. Abundant flowering. Forsythia Linwood Gold is quite frost-resistant, therefore it is suitable for cultivation in central Russia.
In extreme cold, flower buds may die. The height of the bush is about 3 m. The bark is rough, gray-brown in color, the leaves are oval with a serrated edge, the flowers are large (3 cm), bell-shaped, bright yellow. Forsythia Linwood with a spreading spherical crown up to 2.5 m in diameter is widely used in landscape design... Slightly drooping branches easily tolerate pruning.
Growing forsythia Linwood
The bushes are unpretentious, they:
- do not require a special soil composition;
- relatively frost-resistant;
- calmly go through dry days;
- perfectly tolerate a haircut;
Forsythia Linwood can be used as a green, or rather yellow, fence.
Landing
Bushes prefer an alkaline soil environment, therefore, acidic loams are alkalized by the autumn introduction of fluff lime for digging. If this was not done on time, then in the spring dolomite flour or a large amount is added to the planting pits ash.
The depth of the planting holes for the intermediate Linwood forsythia should be 40 cm, the distance between them should be 1, -2 m.
Put in the hole:
- broken brick or crushed stone as drainage;
- sand with a layer of 20 cm;
- soil composition of average fertility.
The planting material is placed in the holes, sprinkled with soil mixture and tamped, then watered abundantly.
When planting in autumn, the ground in the trunk circle is mulched. For the winter, it is better to cover it with a non-woven covering material.
Fresh sawdust for mulching can only be used on alkaline soil, as they strongly oxidize it.
Forsythia care Linwood Gold
Plant care is very simple and consists of:
- regular watering in the absence of rain for a long time (10-14 days);
- loosening and weeding as needed;
- top dressing with complex mineral fertilizer (3 times per season) or mulching humus.
- sanitary pruning and shaping haircut.
Forsythia average Linwood Gold can thrive both in the sun and in the shade, which is not the case with most plants.
Haircut and crown shaping
It is better to carry out annual sanitary pruning in the spring - they remove frozen, dried, broken, old or diseased branches. And also young shoots and shoots growing inside the crown or thickening it. A shaping haircut is done every 3-4 years. In this case, the shoots are shortened by half so that by the fall the plant will get stronger and grow a lush beautiful crown.
An early hygienic pruning should be done before the juice starts moving (in March). All the rest, including the formative ones, only after flowering.
Before a shaping haircut, you should clearly understand the desired result. Forsythia looks interesting in the form of a bowl, ball or hemisphere. You can make both a trapezoidal and a triangular crown. For all configurations, the cutting principle is the same, the difference is in observing the desired contour.
Pruning rules:
- Until 3-4 years old, only sanitary pruning is carried out.
- Upon reaching the specified age - a rejuvenating haircut (every 3 years) with the shortening of all branches by 2/3 of the length.
- Old bushes are cut tightly, leaving hemp 6-8 cm high.
- They begin to form from the 2nd year, cutting along the desired contours and further adhering to the selected configuration, periodically shortening the growing shoots.
To form a crown, you can use a wire frame of the desired shape, along which you can make a haircut.
Forsythia Linwood Gold for hedge
A shrub with abundant bright yellow flowering looks especially advantageous against the background of conifers, so this "tandem" can be used for a living fence by planting plants in rows. It is better to lay a forsythia fence in the fall with a distance of 1 m between the planting holes. The subsequent care is the same as described above.
They begin to form when the plants reach the desired height, but the shoots that protrude beyond the contour are cut off annually. The hedge should be rejuvenated every 3 years by shortening 2/3 of the height. Old bushes are cut at the root, stimulating the growth of new strong shoots.
Without such rigid pruning, a living fence will quickly grow and lose its attractiveness.
With a thickened planting of plants in hedges, an increased dose of fertilizer is required, mulching with humus, and more frequent watering. Then a living fence made of forsythia will delight the eye for many years.