Grow and Care for Genista

Grow Genista in full sun, in poor soil that drains, and skip fertilizer once the shrub is set. Spanish gorse is Genista hispanica, often tagged Spanish broom.

Give it full sun, poor soil that drains, and skip fertilizer

Genista wants sun and a hole that drains. Poor, stony, or sandy ground is better than a rich bed. Water a new plant through the first dry season so the roots take, then skip extra water; an established shrub takes dry weather better than a wet hole. [1] Spanish gorse is the spiny cushion. Lydian broom is the arching mound. Both want the same lean sun and drain; rich, manured soil pushes soft growth that dies back after a wet winter. [2]

1. Choose full sun. A south or west bank that drains is better than a dark north corner.
2. Set it in poor soil that drains. Sand, grit, or lean loam is fine if water does not stand around the roots.
3. Water through the first dry season. After that, skip extra water unless the shrub wilts in a long drought.
4. Skip fertilizer. Extra nitrogen makes soft stems that fail in winter.
5. Match the kind to the site. Spanish gorse is the spiny cushion for a bank. Lydian broom is the arching mound for a wall or a small bed.

Plant a young pot at the same depth, in spring or fall

Buy a young shrub in a pot and set the root ball at the same depth it was already growing. Plant in spring or fall while the soil is workable. Do not lift and move an established plant; the roots do not take a second hole well. [3]

1. Plant in spring or fall, in sun that drains.
2. Knock the shrub from its pot and set the root ball even with the surrounding soil. Do not bury the stem deeper than it grew in the pot.
3. Leave about two to three feet between Lydian broom plants. Leave four to five feet for a Spanish gorse cushion that will spread.
4. Water to settle the soil. Keep the first dry season from baking the new roots. Do not plant into a low spot that stays wet.

Prune after the flowers fade, and do not cut into old wood

You do not have to prune Genista every year. If the mound is too wide, shorten the green shoots that just flowered. Do not cut into old brown wood; new growth will not come from that wood.

1. Wait until the yellow flowers fade in late spring or early summer.
2. If you need a tighter mound, cut the flowered green shoots back by about a third.
3. Take out a dead or broken stem any time.
4. Do not cut into old, leafless wood to renovate the shrub. Replace a bare plant rather than heading it to stumps.

Not Scotch broom — and not the tall Spanish broom

Scotch broom on a Cytisus tag is a taller shrub, often listed as noxious in the West — see How to Grow Scotch Broom. Genista is the dwarf yellow shrub in this catalog. [4]

Spanish broom on many tags is Spartium junceum, a 5- to 10-foot shrub with rush-like green stems and fragrant yellow racemes. It seeds into dry ground and is weedy in parts of the West. Spanish broom on a Genista hispanica tag is Spanish gorse, a 2- to 3-foot spiny cushion. Read the Latin. Gorse is Ulex, a spiny shrub that is not this plant. Butcher's broom is Ruscus. Witches' broom is a dense shoot deformity on a tree, not a shrub you buy. Desert broom is Baccharis — see How to Grow Coyote Brush. Sweet broom and French broom are other names on nursery tags; they are not Spanish gorse or Lydian broom. If the tag says Genista hispanica or Genista lydia, you still have Genista.

Set Genista in full sun, in poor soil that drains, and skip fertilizer once the roots take.