Forsythia

Forsythia shrubs are not much to look at most of the year, but that first bright yellow is sure a welcome sight in early spring. I rushed the clock on this bunch-- forsythia is easy to "force" if you pound the woody stems and put them in deep, warm water. In a few days, free flowers!

There is a famous forsythia display at a park called Dumbarton Oaks in Washington DC. They planted two large hillsides with a mass of yellow forsythia. I'd like to see it in the spring. My favorite garden writer Henry Mitchell (who wrote The Earthman column for the Washington Post) called the hill "that forsythia mess," but he was wonderfully cranky and opinionated.

He also said this:

Your garden will reveal yourself.
Do not be terrified of that.