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Forsythias, Cont...
CASS' PRUNING TECHNIQUE:
I have no trouble accepting the size of plants. When customers say they
want it made smaller, I hear that they want it made better looking. I
lift up the bottom, removing those branches lying on the ground. I thin
out crossing rubbing branches by cutting to a lateral or to the ground.
I look for stubs, stubs, stubs, and crowded branch ends where the poor shrub
has been previously headed. I use the thinning cut to “simplify”
these crowded, mal-pruned areas. I don't really spend a lot of time
cutting canes to the ground. I'm just as likely to limb it up a bit
to make it look more perky, and cut off the worst rambling canes that head
into nearby shrubs, touch the house, or look like they might poke someone
in the eye. I spend a lot of time creating definition (or empty
spaces between plants), so that they seem to fit together better. I
very much recall working on the yard of a certain, great, old gal.
She insisted I make the forsythia smaller. It was a fright of regrowth
from the previous “cutting-back” job. I tried to avoid the task, doing
other needed work in the garden. But she pointed me back at it. So
I screwed up my courage, went in, and mucked about, not trying to make it
smaller, just better. Later she said, “Now, see how much better it looks?”
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