![]() ![]() ![]() Where winter hardy, it typically grows to 6-10' tall. It has escaped gardens and naturalized in California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii. In cultivation they need little care, though they need good drainage and perform poorly on wet soils.Spartium junceum, commonly called Spanish broom, is a multi-stemmed, sparsely-leaved, deciduous shrub that is typically found in dry areas, open woodlands, disturbed sites and along roads in the Mediterranean area (southern Europe to northern Africa). Plant them out into their permanent positions in late summer if they have made sufficient growth, otherwise in late spring of the following year.īroom tolerates (and often thrive best in) poor soils and growing conditions. The roots are delicate and seedlings should be individually potted up as soon as possible since plants quickly become intolerant of root disturbance. It is important that temperatures or not greatly higher than this or germination will be reduced. Sow in pots or seed trays of good quality compost at a depth of about 2cm (just less than 1 inch) The seed usually germinates in under 4 weeks at 15-20°c. Sow all the seeds, even those that remain small as they may germinate much later (perhaps years later), the seeds are very long lived and can remain viable in the field for 30 years. Any that have not could be scarified again followed by another water soak. Once you have done this soak the seeds in cold water for 12-24 hours and successfully treated seeds will have imbibed water and swollen greatly. All of these methods can be used to break through the seed coat. The remaining method is to physically breakthrough the seed coat by cutting or (k)nicking the edge of the seed with a knife or using a file or even rubbing them between layers of fine sandpaper. Seeds that remain small need to be dried for further treatment. This hot water treatment can be repeated up to 3 times, making the water a little hotter each time. Remove all swollen seeds as these will be damaged by further pretreatments. Seeds that have been successfully pretreated will have swollen to around 3 times their previous size. The first (and easiest) method is place the seeds in a heat proof container and pour hot (not boiling!) water 70-80 degrees Celsius over them and leave them to soak for between 12-24 hours. A combination of a variety of seed pretreatments is usually necessary to make the seed coat permeable so that the seed embryo can take up water and begin to germinate. Without pretreatment it is likely that 10% or less of the seeds will germinate. Germination, Sowing and After Care Information forĪlthough Broom seeds have only a very shallow dormancy they have a very hard, water-impermeable seed coat and require pretreatment for successful germination to occur. Full germination, sowing and after care information sent with every order. Seeds are viable for many years and do not have a difficult or complex dormancy period and are therefore relatively easy to grow. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or in full sun, is drought tolerant and can grows well with maritime exposure and also under conditions of atmospheric pollution. Best suited to acid, well-drained soils and dislikes soils above chalk or limestone. They are often the first to colonise open ground especially after fire and can create the correct conditions for woodland succession to begin.Įye catching when in flower from May to June, and the seeds ripen from late July onwards. This characteristic enables them to grow rapidly on soils of very low natural fertility. It is a member of the legume family, these shrubs fix nitrogen from the air. This is the hardiest species of broom, tolerating temperatures down to about -25☌, +10☏ (US zone 5) typically growing to 1–3m (3–9 ft) tall, rarely to 4m (13 ft), with main stems up to 5 cm (2 in)thick. ![]() Native to most of Europe, including Britain, from Scandinavia south to Spain, east to Poland and Hungary, this is a tough, fast growing evergreen shrub is found in sunny sites, usually on dry, sandy soils at low altitudes.
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