I have always liked Broom shrubs when they are in bloom. They come in several different colors, mostly yellow and a brown color. I have tried for years to keep them alive in their nursery pots only to have them die by the end of the summer. I finally figured out how to keep them alive, they love water even though they are an xeriscape plant. I water them 2-3 times in a row to keep them alive in their nursery pot. I have not lost any of them since figuring this out.
I have managed to style 2 Lydia Woadwaxen or Genista Lydia in the form of a weeping style tree. I styled them before they leafed out and they are generally very flexible, all though I did manage to crack one main trunk and it died. They really look good when in bloom and are fairly attractive when not. I took my first tree down to the workshop at the Denver Botanic Gardens Friends of the Pavillion. I put it out on one of the benches to see what the public thought of it. The initial response was really good.
Larry Jackel, DBG Bonsai specialist and International Bonsai Master, was not very supportive of my broom when he first saw it un-styled. I told there was a beautiful tree waiting to come forth and show its self to the world. Latter that spring I styled it and finally put it in a nice Bonsai pot from Iker Pottery.
Check out Chuck Iker’s post on my tree, there are 25 likes on it. New 03-26-2017
I also styled a second tree that I have not yet taken any photo’s of yet. This is the tree that I cracked one of the two trunks and one of them died back. It was removed and it is now a single trunk weeping tree. This tree is going to be potted into a similar style pot.
The only problem I see in working with these trees is finding one with a nice size upright trunk. I recently did find another multi-trunk tree that is currently in development. I would highly recommend them to any person wanting to try something different.
Update 01-16-2021: The tree was doing fine in the spring of 2019 when I apparently missed watering it while still in the garage. I was not able to save it.
Here are a few photo’s of my first tree:
