Spring Colour' with Brooms (Cytisus varieties)
Colourful shrubs are the perfect way of bringing dependable
flowers to your borders in spring. With a minimum of input from you, shrubs
will burst into flower, giving an unequivocal signal that spring has sprung
and summer is on its way.
As with so many of our familiar garden plants, brooms have a wonderful folklore.
According to an old Sussex rhyme, sweeping the house with a flowered branch
of broom will sweep the head of the house away. Perhaps this informs the saying
'a new broom sweeps clean'? Or perhaps not? Certainly, their flowers and buds
have been used for medicinal purposes over time, including diuretics, emetics
as well as to flavour and enhance beer (like hops).
For
gardeners, it's the glorious, abundant flowers that make the beautiful broom
so appealing. Many are coming into flower towards the end of this month, making
broom a perfect choice for planting now. Brooms can bring structure and balance
to late spring borders, combining especially well with tulips and narcissi when
they are flowering.
Talk through your requirements with garden centre staff, but here are a few
suggestions you could look out for: Cytisus decumbens is ideal for ground cover
or rock gardens and produces brilliant yellow flowers. It has a maximum spread
of 1m. Cytisus 'Porlock' has a potential height and spread of 3m at maturity
and makes a fine specimen plant for a shrub border, with its beautiful yellow
flowers coming in spring. Cytisus x praecox 'Warminster' is compact and attractive,
reaching a maximum height and spread of 1.2m and 1.5m and produces a profusion
of pale yellow flowers in mid to late spring. For rich red flowers, look out
for Cytisus 'Maria Burkwood' or Cytisus 'Boskoop Ruby'. Cytisus multiflorus
reaches a maximum height of 3m. It produces a dazzling display of white flowers
in late spring and early summer.
A full sun position is preferable, and poor acid soils are ideal. In fact, their
suitability to poorer soils means that they're often used in land reclamation
projects. They'll also tolerate lime in most cases, provided soil is not too
shallow over chalk. Brooms are easy-care, but it's worth cutting back new shoots
once they have flowered to keep the shrub youthful. Avoid cutting into old wood
when you're doing this.
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