Green forsythia was among the first of the forsythias to have been brought to Europe. The Scottish botanist and plant hunter Robert Fortune discovered it in eastern China, first in the garden of a mandarin and later in the nearby mountains, where it grows wild along rivers and streams. In Europe it was crossed with weeping forsythia (F. suspensa) to produce the handsomely flowered border forsythia, F. x intermedia.
Green forsythia grows erect, a shrub to almost 3 metres, with bright green branches and narrow leaves, toothed in the basal third. It flowers yellow like the other forsythias in early spring before leaf flush.
There has been little experience of its cultivation in Finland. From the literature, it is frost tender in climates similar to Finland’s. A small group has been planted at Mustila in 2010, on Atsalearinne (Azalea Slope), with hopes of spring flowering. And flower it has, F. viridissima being the last of the genus to bloom, which has protected it from spring frosts.