The plant was popular for its rapid growth and low sweet broom shrub care. This is evident in its bloom form, and also means the plant has the capacity to fix nitrogen in soil. Sweet Broom InfoĪ common bit of sweet broom info is its relation to the pea family or Fabaceae. In the proper space, growing sweet broom shrub will add a nice wild touch to the landscape and enhance the area with its scented blossoms. The plant grows quickly and produces a nice airy bush with drought and cold tolerance. While many people consider the plant a noxious weed, it is an attractive plant with its pea-like golden yellow blooms and bright green compound leaves. Genista racemosa) is a familiar sight along highways and in disturbed areas of the west. One of the more common, sweet broom ( Cytisus racemosus syn. It is important to check with your local extension office before adding the plant or its relatives to your landscape to see if allowable in your area.There are over 30 species of Cytisus, or broom plants, found in Europe, Asia and northern Africa. Note: Although broom plants produce attractive, sweet-pea like blooms, they have become highly invasive in many areas. Larvae should not be destroyed, as they appear to be the best resource for controlling scotch broom invasions. Check inside seed pods before treating with chemicals. Larvae of the weevil enter seedpods and are estimated to eat 80% of the seed before they can disperse. Broad spectrum herbicide control is somewhat successful, but must be applied before flowers emerge.īiological controls, such as a species of seed weevil, are under experimentation and found to be successful at reducing seed spread in Oregon. Scotch broom shrubs most often overtake areas where soil had been disturbed, as by tilling. Mechanical removal with large tillers and plows often does not work well with controlling scotch broom, and encourages re-growth. The hard-coated seeds remain viable for as long as 80 years. Spread mainly by prolific seed production and dispersal, it is difficult to kill scotch broom in the long term because of the seeds. Be mindful of new sprouts, which will quickly establish themselves and remove these as they appear.
Make sure you get all of the roots, as partial removal of roots will it to come back instead of fully getting rid of scotch broom.Ĭontrolling scotch broom in the home landscape may be best accomplished by continual shearing during the driest seasons. Root removal is often best carefully done by hand in the home landscape. The roots form a dense and returning mass so this may have to be done repeatedly to kill the plant. Mechanical scotch broom control requires repeated shearing with a chainsaw or trimmer. Scotch broom control may be mechanical, shearing to the ground by hand, or with machinery. Preserving native habitats is an important reason to get rid of scotch broom. Wildlife find the shrub unpalatable and may be driven from a habitat overtaken by the scotch broom. In addition, the scotch broom shrub produces soil conditions which encourage growth of other non-native weeds, choking out native foliage. Reasons to Kill Scotch BroomĮffects of scotch broom shrub include competition with native forest plants. When in flower, the entire bush appears to be yellow.Īfter flowering, scotch broom will produce several dozen large pods that contain hard brown seeds. The flowers grow in clusters along the length of the stems. Scotch boom has tear-shaped leaves that grow in groups of three and mostly bright yellow flowers with occasional purple and red flowers mixed in. It is an aggressively invasive plant that will grow thickly rather quickly. Scotch broom is a deciduous shrub that can be found on the edges of wooded areas and in open fields. Once established, it is difficult to kill scotch broom. Scotch broom shrub was introduced as a landscape ornamental as early as the 1800’s, then used extensively for erosion control in public landscapes, such as roadside plantings, but quickly became a nuisance. Scotch broom control is difficult and often time-consuming, but worth the effort to get rid of scotch broom in the yard and forest. and responsible for the loss of a good deal of that areas’ timber income due to crowding out native species. Though sometimes attractive in the landscape, the scotch broom shrub ( Cytisus scoparius) is a noxious weed in the northwestern U.S.
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