SPRING-FLOWERING HARDY VINES 105 
popular that it is a very real feature of our early 
spring gardens. April sees it as a shower of 
yellow wherever any planting has been done. 
It is free-growing, never troubled with insects 
or disease of any kind, and, although it thrives 
best in a good, deep loam, it will grow moderately 
well in an ordinary soil that supports any vegeta- 
tion at all. It should have a good, sunny loca- 
tion, but the east or west side of a building or 
pergola will answer. The plant must be assisted 
to climb, but, if treated moderately well, F. sus- 
pensa will attain a height of from fifteen to twenty 
feet; it is an excellent plant for porch and portico. 
The pruning needed by forsythia, grown as a 
vine, differs considerably from the method em- 
ployed on it as a shrub. In the latter case, it 
is the common practice to remove two or three 
of the oldest shoots and leave for flowers the young 
wood that is coming on; this gives vigorous 
young wood from year to year, but allows the 
plant itself to make no headway. To develop 
a vine, it is necessary to proceed differently, 
cutting out all dead wood and removing about 
twenty per cent. of the very thin, top branches; 
then cut back far enough on the previous season’s 
growth to insure a good break. This pruning 
must be done immediately after the flowers fade. 
