Common Broom Hedge Plants

Cytisus Scoparius Hedging

Delivered by Mail Order Direct from our Nursery with a Year Guarantee

Scotch or Common Broom, Cytisus scoparius, is native, bushy shrub that thrives in very poor soils. It is a useful hedging plant for a mixed hedge with other, sturdier plants like Hawthorn.
Broom will reach 2-3 metres tall.

Broom plants are only delivered pot-grown, year round.

View our selection of native hedging or see our full range of hedging plants.

Choosing a size:
When you are ordering Broom plants for a hedge, we generally recommend that you use plants that are graded at 40/60cm tall. They are cheaper than large plants, easier to handle and they will establish well in poor conditions.
Use the larger, 80/100cm high plants if you want a taller hedge quickly or for instant impact as a specimen shrub.
All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the pots aren't measured).

Spacing a Broom hedge:

Plant Broom hedging at 3 plants per metre, 33cm apart, or, if you are buying the large sizes, at 2 plants per metre, 50cm apart.
Because broom fixes nitrogen into the soil, it is an excellent choice for a mixed hedge where the soil quality is poor. By putting in a broom plant every 3-4 plants, you will make a significant improvement to the soil for all the others.

General description of Broom plants:

This is a nitrogen fixing plant, which will grow well in the worst soil while improving it for other plants.
Broom has thin, ridged green stems and excellent yellow flowers, similar to those of peas, in May to June. These ripen into dark seed pods. If the summer is hot and dry, you can hear them cracking open.
Cytisus scoparius is a decent plant for adding some colour to a mixed hedge or general planting in poor soils.:

Did You Know?
Old & Local Names for Broom: Spartium scoparium. Genista scoparius. Sarothamnus scoparius. Broom Tops. Irish Tops. Basam. Bisom. Bizzom. Browme. Brum. Breeam. Green Broom.
Broom's thin leaves and whippy stems make it ideal for using as a broom and it was also common in thatching. It was used in some old medicines, but we don't recommend trying it today.
In the late 1800's, it was sold for gardens in California. Today, it is an invasive nuisance in many areas of Western America.

Growing Broom plants:
Cytisus scoparius tolerates light shade, but it is really a sun loving plant. It needs good drainage and even prefers dry, poor soil. It is hardy and likes growing on salty sites near the sea.
Broom tolerate alkaline soil, but it won't grow on shallow chalk.

Prepare your site before planting:
Native hedge plants like Broom are very tough. The only essential preparation is to kill the weeds in a strip a metre wide along the planting site: improving the soil should not be necessary. If your soil is exceptionally poor and dry, then digging in some well rotted manure and/or compost is worthwhile.

Watch our video on how to plant a garden hedge for full details. The plants in this video are delivered pot-grown, but planting out bareroot stock is essentially the same.
Remember to water establishing plants during dry weather for at least a year after planting.

Hedge Planting Accessories:
Prepare your site for planting by killing the weeds and grass with Neudorff WeedFree Plus.
You can buy a hedge planting pack with sheets of mulch fabric and pegs to hold it down.
If your soil quality is poor, we recommend using mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of new trees and shrubs.
You can also improve your soil with bonemeal organic fertiliser and Growmore.

After Care

After you have planted your Broom hedge, the most important thing to do is water it in dry weather. You will also need to weed around the plants. Watering should be thorough, so the ground is soaked. Let the soil almost dry out before watering again. Watering & weeding will be necessary for at least a year after planting.

Trimming Broom hedge plants:
From the winter after planting onwards, your young hedge should be trimmed lightly once every winter, until it is mature. When it is fully grown, you can clip it at anytime.

Special notes on caring for Broom hedges:
Broom is a very tough hedge plant that shouldn't need special attention once it has established. If you didn't use a mulch fabric, it is beneficial to mulch around the base of the hedge each year.

Hygiene & Diseases:
Dead, damaged or diseased wood can be pruned off as soon as it appears.
Disinfect your pruning tools between every cut if there is any sign of disease.
Burn or dispose of any diseased material, do not compost it.