Spring Flowering Shrubs

Apr 15, 2015

By John Ball, SDSU Extension Professor & Forestry Specialist

Early spring flowering shrubs have a special place in our landscapes as they are the heralds of the warm weather yet to come.

While our home landscapes should have interest year around, from spring and summer flowers to summer fruit to brilliant autumn foliage, a space or two should be devoted to an early spring flowering shrub or two.

One of the most commonly planted early flowering shrubs is the forsythia (Forsythia) also known as golden bell for its bright yellow pendulous flowers that lace every cane. Unfortunately, the most commonly planted species in much of the country, the border forsythia (F. x intermedia) and its many cultivars, are not flower bud hardy in South Dakota.

While the canes of the border forsythia can survive our cold winters, its flower buds are often killed when the winter temperatures dip below 10 degrees Fahrenheit - a frequent event during our South Dakota winters. Therefore, it is common in the spring to see border forsythias blooming only along the lower canes, the ones that were beneath the insulating snow.

Fortunately, there exists forsythia cultivars that are flower bud hardy to the Northern Plains. Probably the best known is 'Meadowlark,' a joint release by North Dakota State University and South Dakota State University that is flower bud hardy to below 35 degrees Fahrenheit.

'Meadowlark' forsythias are now in bloom across much of South Dakota and, despite the recent cold weather, almost every cane can be found lined with brilliant yellow blossoms.

There are two other flower bud hardy forsythias for our region. One is 'Northern Sun', introduced by the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and is flower bud hardy to below 30 degrees Fahrenheit and 'Northern Gold' which is also flower bud hardy to below 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

Forsythias

Forsythias reach a mature height and spread of about 6 to 10 feet so they need plenty of room in the home landscape. They also will slowly sucker out so will need to be occasionally cut back from taking over an adjacent flower bed.

Forsythias thrive under most growing conditions, except wet sites and are tolerant of slightly alkaline soils.

Forsythias are truly a single-season shrub as they lack interesting fruit, bark or autumn foliage color. They have only about one or two weeks of landscape interest during the spring flowering, but it's a pretty week or two during April.

Corneliancherry

Another spring flower shrub that blooms at the same time as forsythia is the corneliancherry (Cornus mas) which despite the word "cherry" in the name, is actually a dogwood. This European native is prized for its mid-April yellow flowers that appear before the leaves veiling every branch with its blossoms. The flowers bloom for several weeks and withstand frosts.

The name corneliancherry comes from its cherry-like fruit. While the mid-summer fruit does resemble a cherry, bright red, though more pear-shaped than round, the taste will tell the two apart as corneliancherry fruit is very tart and a little too sour to eat right off the shrub.

The "cherry" is easy to harvest as you do not have to fight the birds for them but they should be picked fully ripe. The easiest way is to place a sheet beneath the shrub and collect the fruit as it falls. It is used for jams and preserves and even sherbet.

Corneliancherry is not hardy throughout the state and is best planted south of Highway 14 and east of the Missouri River. There are also a few nice specimens in the Black Hills.

The shrub almost becomes a tree when planted southeastern South Dakota where it reaches 10 feet or more. Corneliancherry is tolerant of most soils, though performs best on moist, well-drained sites that have neutral or only slightly alkaline soils. Protection from the north wind winds is necessary if planted near the northern limits of its range.