• Home
  • Contact
  • Site Map
George Weigel - Central PA Gardening
  • Landscape 1
  • Landscape 2
  • Landscape 3
  • Landscape 4
  • Garden Drawings
  • Talks & Trips
  • Patriot-News/Pennlive Posts
  • Buy Helpful Info

Navigation

  • Storage Shed (Useful Past Columns)
  • About George
  • Sign Up for George's Free E-Column
  • Plant Profiles
    • Annuals
    • Edibles
    • Roses
    • Bulbs/Corms/Tubers
    • Evergreens/Conifers
    • Flowering shrubs
      • Abelia 'Kaleidoscope'
      • Lilac 'Prairie Petite'
      • American beautyberry
      • Viburnum Blue Muffin
      • Deutzia 'Nikko'
      • Hydrangea Incrediball
      • Summersweet 'Sixteen Candles'
      • Caryopteris 'Snow Fairy'
      • Chokeberry 'Morton' (Iroquois Beauty)
      • Red-twig dogwood 'Midwinter Fire'
      • Hydrangea Little Lime
      • Crape myrtle Red Rocket
      • Dwarf oakleaf hydrangea 'Ruby Slippers'
      • Winterberry holly Red Sprite
      • Korean spice viburnum
      • Abelia Pinky Bells
      • St. Johnswort Blue Velvet
      • Summersweet 'Compacta'
      • Weigela Sonic Bloom
      • Dwarf cotoneaster 'Little Gem'
      • Witch hazel 'Arnold Promise'
      • Sweetshrub 'Hartlage Wine'
      • Staghorn sumac
      • Hydrangea Quick Fire
      • Hydrangea Little Quick Fire and Bobo
      • Crape myrtle Cherry Dazzle
      • Deutzia Chardonnay Pearls
      • Hydrangea Invincibelle Spirit II
      • Sumac 'Gro-Low'
      • Witch hazel 'Jelena'
      • Forsythia Magical Gold
      • Dwarf lilac 'Red Pixie'
      • Hydrangea Tuff Stuff
      • Bush honeysuckle Kodiak Black
      • Spicebush
      • Crape myrtle Dynamite
      • Elderberry Lemony Lace
      • Hydrangea 'Haas' Halo'
      • Chokeberry Ground Hug
      • Pearlbush Snow Day Surprise
      • Dwarf oakleaf hydrangea ‘Munchkin’
      • Sweet azalea
      • Buttonbush
      • Abelia 'Little Richard'
      • Dwarf viburnum Lil' Ditty
      • Viburnum Chicago Lustre
      • Butterfly bush Lo and Behold 'Blue Chip'
      • Caryopteris
      • Caryopteris Petit Bleu
      • Crape myrtle Pink Velour
      • Crape myrtle 'Tonto'
      • Elderberry Black Lace
      • Fothergilla 'Blue Shadow'
      • Fothergilla 'Mt. Airy'
      • Hydrangea Forever and Ever series
      • Hydrangea Let's Dance Starlight
      • Hydrangea Pinky Winky
      • Hydrangea 'Limelight'
      • Lilac Tinkerbelle
      • Magnolia Little Girls
      • Ninebark Diabolo
      • Ninebark Summer Wine
      • Oakleaf hydrangea Snow Queen
      • Purple beautyberry
      • Red-twig dogwood
      • Spirea 'Little Princess'
      • Spirea 'Neon Flash'
      • Spirea 'Ogon' (Mellow Yellow)
      • St. Johnswort 'Albury Purple'
      • St. Johnswort Mystical series
      • Sumac Tiger Eyes
      • Variegated weigela
      • Viburnum Brandywine
      • Viburnum 'Winterthur'
      • Virginia sweetspire Little Henry
      • Weigela My Monet
      • Winterberry holly 'Winter Red'
    • Ornamental Grasses
    • Perennials
    • Trees
    • Vines
  • Timely Tips
  • George’s Handy Lists
  • George's Friends
  • Photo Galleries
  • Links and Resources
  • Support George’s Efforts


George’s new “50 American Public Gardens You Really Ought to See” e-book steers you to the top gardens to add to your bucket list.

Read More | Order Now





George’s “Pennsylvania Month-by-Month Gardening” helps you know when to do what in the landscape.

Read More | Order Now







George’s “Survivor Plant List” is a 19-page booklet detailing hundreds of the toughest and highest-performing plants.

Click Here






Has the info here been useful? Support George’s efforts by clicking below.




Looking for other ways to support George?

Click Here

Forsythia Magical Gold

* Common name: Forsythia Magical Gold

Magical Gold blooming in early spring.
Credit: Plants Nouveau

* Botanical name: Forsythia x intermedia ‘Kolgold’

* What it is: Forsythia has been a popular landscape shrub for decades for one main reason – its showy golden flowers that open in very early spring before most everything else is even producing leaves. After that, though, it becomes a somewhat gangly, plain-green shrub that often becomes overgrown.

   Magical Gold is an improvement that turns this two-week wonder into a two-season bloomer, thanks to its ability to flower on both last season’s wood and this season’s.

   The first bloom is by far the heaviest, covering the stems in exceptionally large golden flowers from as early as late March into mid-April. After a “rest” of a month or so, that season’s new growth then produces a second, lighter bloom toward the branch tips – usually in June or early July.

   The combination of big flowers, compact habit, and reblooming ability is earning Magical Gold status as the new garden-center standard in forsythia varieties.

* Size: Grows four to five feet tall and wide, about a third less than most forsythias.

* Where to use: Flowers best in full sun but also does reasonably well in partly shaded spots. Tolerates poor soil, is drought-tough once established, and is hardly ever bothered by bugs, disease, or animal pests. Works well as a loose hedge, clustered on a sunny bank, or planted singularly as a specimen flowering shrub.

* Care: Pruning isn’t needed if plants have enough space and you’re OK with the somewhat loose, arching habit. Otherwise, maximize neatness and compactness by shearing immediately after the first bloom, although that will delay and possibly abort the rebloom. Fertilizer usually isn’t needed. Water once or twice a week in lieu of rain the first two years to establish the roots, then watering won’t be needed.

* Great partner: Pairs well with early-spring bulbs that bloom at the same time, such as white daffodils, purple hyacinths, and/or blue Siberian squill. Red-blooming summer to late-summer perennials will add color when Magical Gold is out of bloom, such as red daylilies, red coreopsis, or red mums.


  • Home
  • Garden House-Calls
  • George's Talks & Trips
  • Disclosure

© 2025 George Weigel | Site designed and programmed by Pittsburgh Web Developer Andy Weigel using WordPress