A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 Forsythia

We have 3 large bushes in the back....I believe there's a picture on the website somewhere. Anyways, I'm really allergic to them and would like to cut them down in preparation for a pond in that area next year. Its too hot to dug the stumps out, but I'm silling to at least chop the tops off. If I take the Sawzall to it, will it start to come up again or will it just kind of die off?? Is there another way of going about this? I feel bad for killing the pretty things, but its me or them!!!

If you're allergic to them, should you be trying to cut them out yourself? You might be allergic to the sawdust as well. Anyhow, they will keep trying to grow and will send up new stems so you would have to cut them again and again and again unless you were willing to use poison, which I wouldn't.
Are they at a place where someone with a tractor could wrap a chain around them and just pull them out roots and all?

The allergy is to the pollen that they produce, so cutting them down myself isn't a problem. If it turns out to be, my husband can just cut them down for me. They are on a hill that is about 4 foot high that connects two levels of our yard. The trees have been there for at least 12 years, according to the house's previous owners. Will a tractor tear up the lawn?? I suppose we could try to pull them out with our Jeep???

oops I dropped my mouse so this might be a repeat but:

I know what you mean about the pollen. I have been allergic to all things blooming for years and for years I have been on antihistamines, because I can`t stand the idea of not having flowers.

I am on Bromfed right now that seems to be helping me. I guess your body developes resistance or gets used to some antihisamines so you need to change them around ever so often.

Did you know that pollen collects in your hair? During the growing season I make sure I wash my hair every night.

My inlaws used a chain and pulled some bushes out with the four wheeler.....sometimes that is the best way to get rid of something. It may mess up your lawn a little bit, I guess it just depends on how bad you want to get rid of them....

Stephen doesn't think the Jeep will fit through the bushes that I have in the yard that are planted near the forsythia. He thinks using a come-along will work. He wants to put one end of the rope around the forsythia and the other end around a pole for the arbor that our grapes grow on. Do you think it'll work?

I don't know. I'd feel more confident if it was a tree. It might pull the pole out.

Thats what I was thinking, but he said if it started to move the pole that he'd stop. The arbor isn't one of the little ones that you walk under. Its big...posts set in cement in the ground. Its over our entire patio. There should be a pic of it on my website. There isn't a tree that is close by...the closest one is about 50 feet away...maybe more (I'm not good with distances like that)

jen, it sounds like that should work, and it sounds like hubby can do it. let us know!

I cut down one of these at our old house a hundred times I think and it grew back bigger and better every single time! Why not just wait until you are doing the pond when your going to be digging everything up and take them out then? Cutting won't kill them, trust me!

Your right, cutting them will do no good, but pulling them out roots and all will. We're hoping to get that done this week, but if it doesn't we're going to wait until we have time to do something with the hill. I don't want to wait until we do the pond because that isn't written in stone.....and my allergies are. If...when... it blooms again, I will be suffering for another 2 weeks. That is horrible, so they need to come out.