A vigorous deciduous shrub whose bare branches erupt into bright yellow bell-shaped flowers in early spring, signalling the start of the gardening year.
Where it grows
The garden forsythia is a hybrid (F. × intermedia) of two Chinese species, F. suspensa and F. viridissima. Wild forsythias grow on woodland margins and limestone slopes across China, Korea, and Japan. The shrub bears the name of William Forsyth, eighteenth-century Scottish royal gardener and founder of the Royal Horticultural Society.
How to recognise it
A vigorous deciduous shrub two to four metres tall with long, arching stems and opposite oval leaves that emerge after the flowers. Each previous year’s stem is clothed in clusters of bright yellow four-petaled bell flowers that open before any leaf, sometimes covering the entire shrub in a sheet of yellow.
Garden & cultural uses
Forsythia branches cut in winter and brought indoors will force into flower in about ten days, providing one of the first house flowers of the new year. Pruning should be done immediately after flowering, removing old wood from the base to keep the shrub productive. F. ovata and the dwarf Bronxensis suit smaller gardens.
In medicine
The dried fruit of F. suspensa, lian qiao in Chinese, is a key ingredient in traditional formulas for cold and flu, valued for antibacterial and antiviral compounds.