Forsythia bloom on growth that was produced the previous season. Once that growth matures past a year or two, it will not rebloom - most mature forysthias will have bare "legs". You can cut them back to around 6 inches after bloom, but that's a pretty severe approach and generates what is pretty much an eyesore for the rest of the season. The recommended process is to remove upto 1/3 of the oldest stems as close to the ground as you can manage. This will encourage new basal shooting from the root crown that will offer lower blooms next spring while still maintaining a decent appearance to the shrub. If you repeat this process each season, you will eventually have a shrub that is full of bloom from top to bottom and is of a manageable size and height.

Steve, are you sure theres not something else youd like to have since Im sending the Callirhoe seed anyway. It wouldnt cost anymore to stick a couple more little packets in! Ill probably send it out the beginning of next week, so post here or email me if you can find anything on my list youd like to have. And Ive come up with a new possible germination method that Ill email when I send the seed! I still have Lavatera seed left from last year, so Ill just keep trying with that. If you do happen to find some from this year and have time to send it, that works too, but its not necessary. BTW, Im gonna be in SLC! Ill be there for 40 minutes on Christmas Eve! Hehehehe! Ill expect you to buy a ticket to somewhere so you can get thru security to come out to the gate to give me a baby plant!!! ;-) Seriously, if you have a couple seedlings next spring, after it warms up so they for sure wouldnt freeze in the mail, you probably could pad them with a little bit of moist peat and send them. In the meantime, if I ever get germination, Ill let you know! I havent gotten it done yet, but Im still planning to plant some directly in the ground outside to see if normal overwinter conditions will do the trick! Autodidact and Bean, I didnt get the purple coneflower seed collected before it snowed a couple nites ago. The snow has melted off now (beautiful day! It was 70 in my backyard today!), so I brought some in to dry the rest of the way. I leave on a trip tomorrow for three days, and by the time I get back it should be ready to send, so itll go out, probably, next Monday. Ill email after I put it in the mail. Isnt there anyone else around here whod like some free seed? Check out my list above. DELETE the Acanthus, since it apparently didnt produce seed this year, and ADD Aruncus dioicus, goats beard. See pictures of the things I have available at the thread linked below. AndhallelujahPMs are apparently working for me now, so if you want something, just PM me, but still post here that you didjust in case I dont get it! Happy seeds, Skybird

the one my FIL gave me had "Lynwood Gold" on the tag This actually means nothing. Many cultivars travel widely under the wrong cultivar names for long periods of time - it wouldn't surprise me if no stock being offered in North America is using the correct name 'Lynwood Variety' for this British introduction even now. Names of plants cultivated as wild species are also sometimes found by experts reviewing the groups they belong to be different species entirely - or even garden hybrids or other variants being grown wrongly as wild species. Several rather frequently sold and planted cotoneasters for instance aren't the species they are supposed to be.

Sulfur yellow to me is a paler yellow, less gold. I think more like daffodils than most with perhaps even a tiny hint of green to the yellow. If you are willing to drive a bit, there are a ton of arboreta and botanic gardens in PA, including arboreta at both Penn State and U of PA, Longwood Gardens, Hershey, etc. I'd check to see if any have collections of forsythia. I don't have anything close, but have gone down to the Arnold Arboretum when I wanted to see a whole collection.