Spanish Broom
We inherited a big rangy looking rounded shrub in the back yard when we moved in. In fact, there were several, apparently lots of seedlings from the main plant had spread about. We took all of them out, but left the one big parent plant.
It's Spanish Broom, Spartium junceum. It stayed evergreen all winter. It's upright, coarse looking, and the foliage is thin, stiff, and needle-like.
Now, in late April, Spanish Broom is flowering. It has pea-like yellow flowers all over the thin stalks of foliage. It's hard to photograph -- the leaves are so narrow and the flowers are tiny.
And boy, is it fragrant. It's a heavy smell, very spicy, sometimes musky and unpleasant, but mostly just strongly sweet and noticeably perfumed.
The flowers are either butter-and-sugar white with pale yellow, or strongly golden yellow. I can't tell if they are different colors as they mature -- starting out one color and then turning another -- or if the plant really has two different flower colors at once.
Half the shrub has these pretty cream colored blooms . . .
. . . . and half the shrub sports sunny golden yellow blooms, all at the same time.
For such a rough looking plant, it has delicate flowers. It's a tough one -- it grows in adverse, dry, lean soil conditions and is great for erosion control. It's invasive in California.
Most sources say it's cold hardy to zone 8 or zone 7 -- which is odd, since Santa Fe is colder than that in most winters, but here it is, happy, thriving, setting many seedlings and now blooming fragrantly.
It's Spanish Broom, Spartium junceum. It stayed evergreen all winter. It's upright, coarse looking, and the foliage is thin, stiff, and needle-like.
Now, in late April, Spanish Broom is flowering. It has pea-like yellow flowers all over the thin stalks of foliage. It's hard to photograph -- the leaves are so narrow and the flowers are tiny.
And boy, is it fragrant. It's a heavy smell, very spicy, sometimes musky and unpleasant, but mostly just strongly sweet and noticeably perfumed.
The flowers are either butter-and-sugar white with pale yellow, or strongly golden yellow. I can't tell if they are different colors as they mature -- starting out one color and then turning another -- or if the plant really has two different flower colors at once.
Half the shrub has these pretty cream colored blooms . . .
. . . . and half the shrub sports sunny golden yellow blooms, all at the same time.
For such a rough looking plant, it has delicate flowers. It's a tough one -- it grows in adverse, dry, lean soil conditions and is great for erosion control. It's invasive in California.
Most sources say it's cold hardy to zone 8 or zone 7 -- which is odd, since Santa Fe is colder than that in most winters, but here it is, happy, thriving, setting many seedlings and now blooming fragrantly.
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