Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Cultivation => Cultivation Problems => Topic started by: Martin Baxendale on July 22, 2008, 10:39:24 PM
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Does anyone know if the Mount Etna Broom, Genista aetnensis, might produce regrowth if cut back to a stump?
I know the brooms are supposed to hate being cut back hard into old wood, but my huge 15-year-old Genista aetnensis (over 15ft tall) that I showed on the forum last year got so large that it blew over in recent high winds and heavy rain. It was in full flower and the weight of the rain in the flowers, combined with strong gusty winds, pulled it over to a 45 degree angle. It's still firmly rooted, having a very bendy trunk. But it's too heavy to pull back upright and much too heavy to stake (it was staked with two 4in X 4in fence posts set in deep metal spikes, but they were pulled out of the ground!) And it's now leaning out across our parking space, over the cars and looks very odd.
I've been cutting back some of the top growth to try to make it lighter, but the trunk is almost a foot across with really thick heavy branches and I can't get it back up and safe even with over half the branches now gone. I think I'll have to cut it down to a stump and hope that it might re-grow. I cut an old Acer palmatum down to a 12 inch stump recently and got regrowth, but I'm not so sure about the broom.
I'm gutted to lose it after all these years (the scent at this time of year is fantastic) and would be encouraged to hear if anyone has had any success with effectively pollarding a big old broom, whether G. aetnensis or other species.
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I'll be able to let you know by the (southern) summer probably Martin. Mine is acting much as yours, and needs to be removed altogether or radically restrained. I love it though, especially the fruit salad perfume so wouldn't want to lose it altogether. I've sown some seeds recently and it also roots (slowly) from cuttings, so one way or another I hope to have replacement material if the worst happens.