Northern Gold Forsythia
Forsythia 'Northern Gold'

It wasn’t too long ago that most northerners could only dream of owning a forsythia which stood any chance of overwintering in their gardens. The flower buds that result in the stunning golden yellow blossoms in very early spring must make it through the winter without sustaining damage, and that’s always a tall order in the North. Thanks to the efforts and devotion of northern plant breeders, we now have forsythias that are reliably hardy in the North, and we too can have these harbingers of spring grace our landscapes, just like they do in Philadelphia and Vancouver!

One of these recent achievements in forsythia breeding has stood apart from the rest as the hardiest and most reliable bloomer of the bunch. Northern Gold forsythia was developed in Canada, and is one tough customer. It was the result of a cross between the showy Border forsythias of warmer climates and the much hardier but less showy Early forsythia of Korea, combining the stunning blooms of the former with the hardiness of the latter. This variety is hardy to zone 3 in most years, and is definitely worth a try down to zone 2 with shelter and some good snow cover.

You don’t need much of a green thumb to grow forsythias. Just give them full sun, decent soil and lots of room to grow; they’ll settle right in. They can be successfully used as solitary accents, in groups of 3, or massed together as a tall hedge or barrier. Place them in the landscape where they will command attention with their golden flowers, but where they can fade into the background the rest of the year, as they have few other ornamental attributes.

As beautiful as forsythias can be in the first days of spring, they are actually rather difficult to use in conventional landscapes, tending to grow quite wild and woolly with large branches arching and sprawling all over the place. They also grow quite tall, and require a regular pruning every year to keep them in check. Remember, though, never to prune them until after they have flowered!

Click here to read more details on this plant in the Landscape Plant Search resource.