Golden Bells

How to grow Golden Bells

Written by the GardenDecoded editorial team · Last reviewed 21 July 2026 · Written for UK gardens · How we research our guidance

Planting

Plant bare-root in winter or container-grown in autumn or spring. The long arching stems want room, or a wall or bank to spill over - trained against a wall it is more graceful than the stiff bush forms.

Pruning

Prune immediately after flowering, in April, and not later. Cut a proportion of the oldest stems right down to the base each year and shorten flowered growth to strong new shoots. Trimming it into a lollipop in summer, which is what usually happens to forsythia, removes next spring's flowers and produces a shrub that is ugly for eleven months.

Propagation

Hardwood cuttings in autumn are very easy. It also layers where the arching stems touch the ground.

Pests and diseases

Generally trouble-free. Bullfinches strip flower buds in late winter in some areas, which can wipe out the display.

Value to wildlife

Early flowers give some nectar for bees, though it is of limited wildlife value overall.

Notes

It does nothing much after April, so put it towards the back of a border or in a boundary planting rather than in a prominent spot. Overgrown plants respond well to renovation - cut a third of the stems to ground level each year for three years.

Some structured details on this page (such as tolerances, pH and hardiness) come from USDA PLANTS Database (public domain). The written guidance is GardenDecoded's own, researched as described in our editorial policy.

Other names for this plant

These names have all been used for Forsythia suspensa but are no longer the accepted name. You may still meet them on old labels, in books, or in nursery catalogues.

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