Apr 10 2015
Wake Up with a Bang
The long winter kept the garden quiet until April. The daffodils started the show, but it’s the forsythia that wakes up with a bang and shouts “Look at me over here! I’m bright yellow and as big as a van!” I love its garish wildness and always feel sorry for the ones that have been precisely pruned and bloom in a round yellow ball.
I had so much forsythia in my yard when I moved in that over the years we dug out shrub after shrub to make room for other plants. (Mr. Shaw believed you could never have too much forsythia.)
I watch the largest shrub bloom from my kitchen window. One year, when it bloomed meagerly, I hacked parts of it to the ground and threatened it with destruction if it didn’t bloom better the following spring. It’s a massive thing now. I stood in front of it this year so you could see the size.
Other than these few glorious weeks in spring, forsythia isn’t much to look at. The birds love it though. This year, I was blessed to snap a picture of a blue jay hiding inside.
