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Yellow Plants? — Brooklynian

Yellow Plants?

new2hood
new2hood
edited November -1 in Park Slope
What are those beautiful shrubs/trees around the neighborhood that have bright yellow blossoms? I've seen them small (around 3 feet) and big (over 10 feet). Do they stay yellow all summer, or do they turn green? Easy to grow?

In the process of cleaning up the backyard, and think they may be a nice addition. Anyone know of what I speak?

Thanks!

(I'll try to take a picture and add it....)

Comments

  • brooke lynn knight
    brooke lynn knight
    Forsythia -- the Official Flower of Brooklyn!

    They turn green as soon as they stop blooming and stay green all summer. Unless they're an unusual variegated variety, they're pleasant but boring for the rest of the year.

    They're very easy to grow, but try to find a dwarf variety unless you want them to take up a huge amount of space (or you don't mind pruning them). The BBG gives away a different forsythia variety every year to members -- I just got mine last week.
  • carnivore
    carnivore
    Many people think that Robert Frost's poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" is about Forsythia (as a metaphor, obviously).

    Nothing Gold Can Stay

    Nature's first green is gold,
    Her hardest hue to hold.
    Her early leafs a flower;
    But only so an hour.
    Then leaf subsides to leaf.
    So Eden sank to grief,
    So dawn goes down to day.
    Nothing gold can stay.
  • antigone1000
    antigone1000
    Carnivore wrote: Many people think that Robert Frost's poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" is about Forsythia (as a metaphor, obviously).

    Nothing Gold Can Stay

    Nature's first green is gold,
    Her hardest hue to hold.
    Her early leafs a flower;
    But only so an hour.
    Then leaf subsides to leaf.
    So Eden sank to grief,
    So dawn goes down to day.
    Nothing gold can stay.

    sniff sniff....that was beautiful, Pony Boy :lol:
  • carnivore
    carnivore
    :lol:

    Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.
  • new2hood
    new2hood
    Thanks, everybody! For the info, the poem, and the Hinton reference....
  • lemur11215
    lemur11215
    Any tips on taking cuttings on forsythia?

    I tried again last year with no luck and have now resolved that I'll have to buy one, but the only forsythia I've found at the garden centers are already 4-5 feet high.

    I've got a spot in the yard that I've been holding for a forsythia for a few years now. I have no idea why I'm having so much trouble finding one.
  • belzjm
    belzjm
    I think you are probably having a difficult time finding them, because a lot of those really into gardening think of these as weeds.

    Although they are lovely for the nostalgia and for the pop of yellow at the onset of spring, they are not at all attractive for the rest of the spring/summer, they grow very quickly and usually don't keep a great shape unless pruned extensively.

    With that being said, all plants are great and if you have your heart set on one of these, by all means...!
  • violet
    violet
    My sister just clipped a stem off of a plant in Queens and brought it home to me (in Bed Stuy). In a little water it sprouted roots, and I put it in the ground. Now it's big and is even sending off a sprout-let from the bottom (a small new bush is growing a few inches away from the big guy). You're welcome to take the sprout-let.

    However, ours has been hesitant to bloom. That may well be because it gets pretty big in our small garden, and I keep pruning it all year, and I think you're only supposed to prune them right after flowering. So maybe I'm cutting all of next year's buds off?

    This year it has a few flowers on the tips of many of the stalks, but it is not festooned with gold the way many are. Here it is:

    image

    If you join the Brooklyn Botanical Garden they have a Forsythia Day (this year's was April 6) where they give away plants.

    Like I said, if you want some of ours you are welcome. And raspberries. If anyone wants raspberries I need to get rid of some. And mint, of course...
  • quencam
    quencam
    no violets? ;-)
  • violet
    violet
    Violets! :D They've just started blooming. Here are some (originally one plant from Queens, they're now working with the mint and the raspberries and ivy and strawberries to take over the whole garden) from last year:
    image

    And here's a firefly on a violet leaf:
    image

    :D
  • msns
    msns

    Subject: Forsythia

    Had a pretty big one in the back for years. I would prune it about the 1st of March put them in vases and have flowers for my daughters' birthday on the 13th. After the flowers the leaves would start and if you left them in water many would put out roots.
    A few grew in the back from overgrown branches touching the ground.
    That's how I got the one in the front.
    When the flowers start to fade, I will gladly give you a bunch of cuttings.
    Don't know if they root better when cut early but you could give it a try.
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