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Forsythias, Cont...
STOOLING, COPPICING OR RADICAL RENOVATION:
An entire system of managing forsythias and other deciduous flowering
shrubs is found in several pruning guides and in old British garden
books. There it is recommended that the entire plant be cut down
or to a low framework called a “stool”. This is to be done every year
after the shrubs are through blooming. This allows these tough
plants time to regrow, set buds and bloom for the next year. I figure
it worked well in olden days because labor was cheap, and it was too difficult
to explain real selective pruning. I don't think it's such a good idea
in very hot climates, or when done before the plant is thoroughly established
(three years?). I call cutting a plant to the ground radical renovation,
and I usually do it as a short cut (ha, ha) to rehabilitative pruning for
a previously mal-pruned plant not as a yearly maintenance chore. The
other way to renovate a mal-pruned plant is to cut one-third of the canes
to the ground for three years in a row, at which point new growth will
have completely replaced the old. I recall a lady who had all of
her deciduous flowering shrubs boxed for years. Now they were too big
again and she couldn't figure out what to do. They were far too dense
for the one-third method. Instead, I renovated every other one to a
low (less than two feet), uneven framework of stubbed-off canes. This
was done to encourage regrowth at uneven heights which is more natural
looking. The next Spring the forsythia was up and blooming and almost
as tall as it was before. However the canes were very stiff and straight
and less than 1/4 inch in diameter. But, over the following years, the
canes fattened up, arched over, put on side branches and more blooms,
thus regaining the characteristic vase or fountain shape. Then I cut
down the other half of the shrubs and repeated the procedure. I could
have cut them all down at once, but this is usually too great a leap of
faith for the average homeowner.
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