In Choestoe, we called forsythia “March Flowers” (to indicate the month they bloomed there). Tipper (and others) call them “Yellow Bells.” Whatever the name, their beauty and persistence in blooming are unparalleled. Harbingers of spring, they can lift any “down, droopy” spirit with their golden glow! When I moved to Milledgeville 12 years ago from Epworth (near Blue Ridge, Ga–not Epworth-by-the-sea, but Epworth-near-Tennessee), I brought some Forsythia cuttings from my Epworth house. They had been taken from the Choestoe house (my childhood home) to Epworth–and some moved again to Milledgeville. They do well wherever I’ve encouraged them to root and take hold. And my reward: March flower blooms!
—Ethelene Dyer Jones March 2015
Yellow bells in my area are still blooming brightly. If you’d ever like to take them with you like Ethelene did when she moved, they are very easy to transplant.
Granny shared her yellow bells with me back when we first moved into our house and she showed me how to plant them. She said “Come spring of the year we’ll get you some cuttings from my forsythia bushes, all you have to do is stick them in the ground and they’ll live.” It wasn’t that I didn’t believe Granny, but it seemed impossible that all I had to do was cut a piece off and stick it in my red clay dirt and I’d have my own yellow bell bushes.
Granny’s method worked and the yellow bells along our driveway throw out their vibrant welcome for spring each and every year.
Last night’s video: Family History and Stories of Opal Corn Myers.
Tipper
Subscribe for FREE and get a daily dose of Appalachia in your inbox
Hi Tipper,
I have a question and I don’t know where to ask it but here. The vest that you are wearing in the picture on this page, is it handmade or bought and if handmade, do you know the pattern. I have been looking on pattern websites for something similar and have not been able to find anything.
Thank you,
Carol-it is a store bought vest 🙂 The brand is J.Jill. I found it at a thrift store years ago and still wear it.
We had yellow bells . Lovely flowers but my mom would threatened us with a forsethia switch if we misbehaved! One swat was like a bee sting! A threat was all that was necessary for us to tow the line!
Hey everyone, Hoping all are doing well and having a great weekend. We’ve had a few storms over the weekend and today a few have come through. We need the rain pretty much. Seems to be a little dry here this spring. Sorry so many are going through such terrible things. Prayers going out to all.
I have always like the forsythia bushes. I think they are very pretty. We’re seeing lovely, bright pink azalea bushes all over our area too. They always look like huge bouquets and I really enjoy the fresh spring blossoms. God is truly a great designer of this old earth. Free to all. Such beautiful flowers, I’d never complain about them. In my area it seems we have an abundant amount to enjoy and over quite a length of time. Seems like there are so many, magnolias, azaleas, forsythias, roses, dogwoods. I’m sure I cannot think of them all. Just so many beautiful flowers to see throughout the year. Miss Tipper, What a lovely article today. Thanks for giving us something beautiful to think about. South Mississippi, Jennifer
Our Appalachian mountains here in Anderson County Tennessee are on fire. Some people have evacuated their homes and Black hawk helicopters are retrieving water from Norris Dam in helping to contain the fires. Pray for the firefighters and people that have lost their homes.
I’m trying Granny’s method of planting yellow bells! They do say Spring!!
Brenda, I am so sorry the fires are in your county. I am holding the first responders and those affected in the Light.
I’m going to try Granny’s method of forsythia propagation, too.
Could someone please tell me how to pronounce “Choestoe”? Better still, give me a link to where I can hear it?
Robert-I’m sure I’ve said it in a video but I can’t think of which one. It’s said by locals as Cho a sto ee 🙂
To me, March flowers have always been Jonquils. Some call them daffodils and they may be a form of them. Anyway, they always bloom around my birthday in March so I have a bouquet for my special day.
Forsythia was sometimes called “Easter bushes” around here. And they add to the cheerful mood of springtime. However when the hills come alive with redbuds and dogwoods is when the magic really begins. Have a blessed weekend and week ahead, sweet Tipper and family. With love from Southeast KY.
I just love yellow bells. That’s what I have always called them. I didn’t know they were so easy to transplant. My neighbor has several in her back yard and we have all enjoyed them this spring. They are still pretty even after they have stopped blooming. Yellow bells let you know that spring has arrived along with this glorious pollen that has made its grand entrance. Hoping some rain will soon come our way. Have a wonderful day everyone!!
I visit a friend where I see Choestoe signs when I visit in your area and I think of reading Ms Jones’s comments. She told a lot about that area.
Your forsythias bloomed before mine this year. Mine are beautiful right now. I also moved them several times and they are one of the few plants remaining from where I grew up. Forsythia had been in the yard here where an old house had been years ago but someone my husband once hired to mow cut it down. I planted these as a group of three just close enough that they slightly overlap. They are where my circle drive up the hill and around my house divides. I think they are much prettier if given room to spread their wings than if they are cut in an unnatural shape. Either way they welcome spring. And like you said are so easy to start. A rock placed on a limb to hold it in place where it touches the ground will start another plant. And mixed with other springs blooms cuttings add to a spring bouquet.
My yellowbells blossoms are done for already but with all the bright green new growth they are as pretty as ever. I keep mine cut way back and shaped in a ball shape. They seem to enjoy their yearly haircut.
Mama had a beautiful forsythia bush in the front yard. They’re blooming everywhere in the Richmond, Virginia area.
Love those Yellow Bells. I planted them on the sides of our old house and I enjoyed them every year. When we moved I found them all around me and when I stumbled across your blog, Tipper, many years ago you had a picture of them and said in your area they were called Yellow Bells. I thought oh my goodness, that is what Mother always talked about Yellow Bells blooming Spring in MS when she was a child; now I know Mother was talking about Forsythia. Even though I know they are Forsythia, I absolutely love the name Yellow Bells and think of them as little Yellow Bells ringing in Spring.
I clicked on Music on top of your page and watched Corie sing some beautiful, beautiful gospel songs I love. I watched it on my t.v., and sang along with her. Great job!!
I also watched Paul sing an original song of his friends and as always he does a great job. Loved him and Granny singing old gospel songs too. God bless ya all and have a great week!!
Yes, yellow bells! I enjoy our neighbors’ yellow bells every spring & recently commented to my husband that we need to plant some around the edge of the woods on our property. Thanks for the tip! I’m going to my family’s home place nearby & gather some cuttings from the yellow bell bush that I have watched bloom through out my 68 years!
The forsythia, red buds and one of my white dogwoods are open. There are also crabapple trees blooming and other trees that I don’t know the name of in full array. The peonies are showing their heads, but they won’t bloom until May. I was reading the other day that forsythia can be planted easily. My husband and I are going to take cuttings from our forsythia and plant them all across the back of our property where the neighbor has put up posts. These will provide a beautiful hedge in the future. Probably would need about 20-25 cuttings.
Tipper, I learn a lot from you and believe me “IM picking up what you’re laying down here!” In other words, I’m going to grab some forsythia and get them planted! I agree they are cheery and lovely and a definite spring harbinger. They look beautiful in an arrangement with Bradford pear blooms! I’m awaiting the dogwoods blooming and here come the pears any day in full bloom! I have all closed outside walls and soffit etc on this shotgun shack! I’m happy to keep bugs and God knows what outa here! If i can get my roof put on, I’ll be coming in hot!!! Slowly but surely I guess things are improving! The metal was being made at Erwin, TN so they got hit a few weeks ago with flooding like around here in WELCH. My adopted son drove through a 6 foot high wall of mud that had been plowed to make way for drivers.If you’ve never seen Welch, WV take a look. It always makes me cry like Charlene Darling said on Andy Griffith… lol God bless you as the mountains here on the other side of the mountain in Bland, Va are on fire! Pray it is contained and if not that I can make a run for the border if I have to!!!! God bless yall!
Forsythia are such pretty flowers. I didn’t realize they were so easy to grow from cuttings. I love how Ethelene was able to take them along with each move. Especially since the first cuttings came from her childhood home.
I believe this year’s Forsythia have been the most glorious I can remember. Either that, or for some reason I have fallen in love with them at 63 years old.
I am going to try Granny’s advice and take some cuttings from my own Forsythia, as well as some from the grounds of the Quaker Meeting House to root in several areas at my home. There are about 4 or 5 places where the ones my mother planted years and years ago are still growing but we have plenty of room for more.
I love our forsythia too. I have planted and transplanted them in several places in our yard over the years. Don’t plant them where you won’t have room because you have to dig them up by the roots to get rid of them. I cut off some branches and planted them all across the front of our yard next to the road. They have grown to make a beautiful yellow fence this time of year. I keep them trimmed so they don’t get too tall. They look beautiful even when they are finished blooming and the green leaves take over. I have a Rose of Sharon that my mama had growing in our front yard. She gave me starts from it and one made a beautiful small tree/bush. It usually blooms with white flowers near the end of summer. It is precious to me because my parents sold the house and land and moved to an apartment in town many years ago. Mama always took pride in her flowers and she can see her Rose of Sharon growing and blooming in my yard each year.
Interesting about your yellow bells and Rose of Sharon! One of my dad’s favorites was forsythia and mom grew them for years after he passed. We have a healthy stand of yellow bells against the back fence with Rose of Sharon (ours are like small trees) on either side.
Carol- I bet that looks beautiful. My Rose of Sharon looks like a small tree also.
Brenda, my mother planted Rose of Sharon all over the place here and there are 3 colors. I believe most are a pinkish- purple, and some are actually a more lavender purple, and only a few are white. I prefer the white, maybe because they seem rare. Some of them have definitely grown into trees. There’s one at the corner of our front sidewalk that my grandkids turn into an Easter Egg tree each year. I can still remember the very first Easter Egg tree I ever saw way back in the early 90s. It was in Hanging Dog area, N.Carolina.
Forsythia’s are in full bloom here and are so beautiful! Red Buds are now opening up and soon the Dogwoods will be blooming. And the beginnings of Moral Mushroom hunting season is now here!
Are you all staying safe with the wildfires that are happening here in western North Carolina?
Denise-there are no fires in my general area. I’m praying all the fires are put out. So much land is on fire.
Prayers that the fires stay away from your location!
The weather channel says Bryson City has had some rain and expects more. I hope it is enough to at least dampen down the fire on Alarka.
The only major fire we’ve had here in Burke County wasn’t a forest fire. A junkyard caught on fire last Saturday over on Old Amherst Road and boiled black smoke all day long. The firefighters couldn’t get close enough to knock it down because of explosions. I guess that would have come from tires, gas tanks, and anything else that was sealed up. The fire was about 8 miles from my house but I could see the thick black smoke billowing up from it.
I have a bush of “Yellow Bells” that is what I call them too. because I cansay the the other name. But they are so uplifting.
Hope the family us getting better. Prayers going up for all of you!
I saw some yellow bells blooming this morning at what use to be my mother’s home. Mother had the yard full of flowers, like her, many have now died.
I just read that the Table Rock fire in Northern Pickens and Greenville County, SC is now the largest wildfire in SC history. There is also another wildfire burning in the Cesar’s Head area of Greenville County. Some of you may remember me writing about my sweet potato friend, Ben not only farms but also works with the SC Forestry. He has been helping fight these fires during the last week. He keeps a bulldozer and truck at his home and plows fire lines around the wildfires.