Field of Science

How unfortunate! Poodle pruning is a no-no.

One of the shrubs that you should never, ever poodle prune is 
Forsythia. When pruned properly Forsythia is an open shrub with some gracefully arching branches with a lacy look in when in flower. Sometimes an unruly shoot does grow straight up, but they are easily removed. When poodled the shrub is an ugly blotch of yellow when in flower and when not in flower it has no saving grace at all. The problem is that
it's actually a fairly large shrub and takes quite a bit of room. The un-poodled shrubs were terribly over grown and cut back severely two years ago. Now they returned to their usual shape and a reasonable size. One problem is that Forsythia branches whose tips touch down can "layer", root down, nice if you want another shrub, but if you let them so spread they will form a thicket. So put away the hedge trimmers, and actually prune your Forsythia, or someone may be saying, "How unfortunate!"

1 comment:

Larissa said...

Should I share this with my "helpful" neighbors? I just need to hang a "Do Not Trim" sign on the poor thing.