Plant Profile: Forsythia

This early spring-blooming shrub is a mainstay of area gardens and parks. Some people object to their bright yellow, relentless cheer, but we could not imagine a local springtime without them!

One of the best uses of this plant is en masse such as at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC. That famous planting was designed by Beatrix Farrand.

After flowering, your forsythia should be cut down to 18-24 inches high and will then quickly grow back. This tough garden plant needs at least 6 hours of full sun for reliable flowering each year.

It likes well-draining soils enriched with organic matter. We recommend mulching around it each fall with partially composted leaves.

The shrub can reach 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide. If space is an issue in your garden, recent introductions like ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Gold Tide’ are more compact.

Forsythia is very easy to propagate. Often a branch will touch the ground and take root. Just cut that branch off from the mother-plant and dig up the roots to transplant it. You can also guide a branch down, place a rock on it, then come back a month or so later to check on if it has rooted yet.

If your Forsythia is not blooming early enough for you, cut a few branches in February and bring them indoors then place them in a tall vase filled with room temperature water to force them into flower.

While the yellow Forsythia is ubiquitous, did you know there is a related white forsythia and even a pink form?

Try planting a Forsythia bush in your garden today – you can grow that!


The video was produced by Washington Gardener Magazine and edited by intern Emily Coakley.
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Forsythia Gates Reopening at Dumbarton Oaks Park

 Dumbarton Oaks Park 74^th Anniversary Celebration

 

Sunday, April 12

12:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

 

>>To many people in the Washington, DC area, spring is heralded by the much-celebrated blossoming of the cherry trees along the National Mall’s tidal basin. A less-renowned though equally dramatic and colorful springtime phenomenon is the curtain of forsythia cascading around the iconic estate gates and the blooming of wildflowers and native trees in Dumbarton Oaks Park. From bluebells and daffodils to saucer magnolias and redbuds, the spring colors of the unique park offer inspiration and beauty to national capital area residents and tourists alike.<<

 

Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy, a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to restoring and promoting the culturally significant Dumbarton Oaks Park in Georgetown, announced  that it will host the park’s anniversary celebration.  

 

A free event open to the public, the 74^th Anniversary Celebration will include a gate reopening ceremony with remarks by Rock Creek Park Superintendent Tara Morrison and Conservancy President Lindsey Milstein; exhibits from park partners focusing on urban environmental protection and conservation landscaping; children’s arts ‘n’ crafts activities; a wildflower walk led by expert naturalist Mary Pat Rowen; and a park history and restoration-focused Secret Garden Stroll led by author-historian-Conservancy staff member Scott Einberger.  

 

Dumbarton Oaks Park is the world’s only surviving wild garden designed by Beatrix Farrand, herself the first professional female landscape architect in U.S. history. Farrand designed the 27-acre property in the 1920s as part of the original Dumbarton Oaks estate. A few months after the wild garden was donated to the public by estate owners Robert and Mildred Woods Bliss, the garden officially opened as Dumbarton Oaks Park on April 12, 1941, a National Park Service administrative sub-unit of Rock Creek Park.

 

Over the years, Dumbarton Oaks Park has been overcome by invasive, non-native plants which threaten biodiversity as well as the park’s historic design integrity. Urban stormwater runoff and its associated problems of erosion and water pollution are also a serious contemporary problem. Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy, an official partner of the National Park Service, was founded in 2010 to mitigate these problems and restore the park to its former glory.

 

EVENT:

Gate Reopening Ceremony followed by a Community and Partnership Celebration.

 

WHEN:

Sunday, April 12, 12:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

 

WHERE:

Public access to Dumbarton Oaks Park is from approximately 3060 R Street NW in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC.

 

EXHIBITORS: 

Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy , American Society of Landscape Architects , George

Washington University Landscape Design program, Rock Creek Conservancy , British School of Washington , Rock Creek Park Division of Interpretation and Education , D.C. Department of the Environment , City Wildlife , Jackson Art Center , and Rock Creek Songbirds .

 

BACKGROUND:

Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy

The Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy is a non-profit organization established in 2010 that seeks to restore the bulk of one of America’s ten greatest garden landscape designs, namely 27-acre Dumbarton Oaks Park, formerly part of the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Georgetown, Washington, DC.

 

For more information and a complete schedule of events, visit www.dopark.org