Cane-stemmed shrubs like this do not produce long-lived individual stems, that are retained for long periods.

I think I will try it. They grow everywhere in the woods near my grandparents' house, I marked a bunch with ribbon while they were in bloom. Just to clarify, it is the hybrid forsythia (forsythia x intermedia) not forsythia suspensa.

whats to lose ... ken

if all you learn is that it is an epic failure.. at least you learned something ...

rather than sitting in front of your computer/gizmo staring at your belly button wondering if it will work ...

keep us posted as to result ...

ken

What's to lose is it would seem to be a waste of time to produce sculptural novelties using plants that don't retain individual main stems throughout the life of the specimen. Over time declining canes will have to be cut out and new ones pleated in a recurring, regular basis in order to maintain the effect.

It would not be a waste of time if Logan learned something about shrubs from the experiment. Nor if it occupied him sufficiently to keep him away from the burning bush propagation project.

LOL @ floral_uk

Here ya go Logan, hundreds of forsythia popping up on either side of a local roadbank. AFAIK they are yours, that will keep the road crew from having to spray them. I can also direct you to about 2.5 acres of autumn olive for your plaiting project. I'll even help you get them, roots and all.

LOL sam! Forsythia is not classified as invasive here yet. I also like autumn olive, the good outweighs the bad.

No, it doesn't (outweigh the bad).

The only "bad" thing about it is the invasiveness. Check out my article on autumn olive. I plaited the forsythia and almost broke one of the stems, certainly not the most flexible stems. I will take a picture tomorrow when it is daylight. I will most likely pollard it after bloom starting next year to keep extra weight off of the stems. The plaiting work (with 2 stems) doesn't look so magnificent yet, but it will look better after they thicken up.

As this is a shrub it won't be pollarding.

We are sure all those more or less similarly sized, uniformly distributed forsythias in the one picture are a spontaneous infestation - and not in fact a planting? Here some freeway plantings for instance consist of forsythias.

It does look like a planting to me as well.

btw, I planted my burning bush yesterday where I had a small white oak. the white oak has been cut down and was shaped like a shrub. Now I have burning bush!

More escaped forsythia, I only notice them when they bloom. Here they take on a weedy nature.