Genista tinctoria ‘Royal Gold’ Woadwaxen is in the Broom family and considered an xeriscape plant. My experience with Broom in nursery pots is that they are extremely difficult to keep alive because we do not provide enough water to them and they die. I have learned the hard to water them at least 4 times in one watering session. This means I water it once, wonder off to some other trees, come back water it again, water something else, come back water for the third time, wonder off again and finally come back for the fourth/final watering for the day. They get watered everyday to. They are hardy to zone 4 in the USA. They basically have a green trunk and green branches with very tiny leaves. The do flower with yellow pea like blooms and there are plenty of them. Broom is not used for Bonsai and I think it should be. The branches tend to arch when the grow and length. You can cut them back and they back bud really well. This particular species of Broom grows really fast. This tree was purchased when the trunk was about 5/8 ” wide and allowed to grow for several years with just Plant Tone fertilizer being used on it. The trunk on the tree is now about 1 1/2 inches thick and the tree was around 4 1/2 feet tall before it was chopped back on 05/08/2021. I decided to chop the tree back and try to create a sort and powerful tree which will be full of yellow flowers in the spring. Hopefully everything will turn out ok. One article on this broom says not to prune back hard as they do not regenerate well. That is news to me. In my case I chopped back to sprouts aready budding out on the trunk. Hopefully I am correct in what I have done. Time will tell. My other Broom Bonsai’s have been attacked by squirrels so that is something you should watch out for and protect the roots on the tree. They seem to be allergic to lead for some reason? Broom can be wired if your very careful land larger branches are brittle and you must very careful when bending the branches. This tree is starting to get mature bark on it or at least I think it is?
Genista tinctoria by Wikipedia
Genista tinctoria ‘Royal Gold’ by Chicago Botanical Garden
Genista tinctoria ‘Royal Gold’ Dyer’s Greenweed; Dyer’s Broom by Denver Botanic Gardens
Royal Gold Woadwaxen by Cannon
Galleries:
After Chopping:
Before:
