{"id":536,"date":"2016-06-27T12:30:21","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T11:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/advisor\/gardening-tips\/pruning-broom-plants\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T05:44:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T05:44:29","slug":"pruning-broom-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/gardening-tips\/pruning-broom-plants\/","title":{"rendered":"Pruning Broom Plants"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brooms (Cytisus and Genista) are sun\u2011loving, drought\u2011tolerant shrubs that burst into clouds of pea\u2011shaped flowers from April to June. Although they\u2019re generally low\u2011maintenance, a light annual trim keeps them compact and floriferous. Left unpruned they soon become leggy, woody and flower less freely. Follow the simple steps below to keep your broom colourful and healthy for many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • Timing: Wait until the main flush of flowers has faded (late spring or early summer) before you prune \u2013 cutting earlier removes next year\u2019s buds.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Light trim each year: Shorten the current season\u2019s green shoots by about one\u2011third with sharp secateurs to keep the plant compact.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Remove dead or damaged stems: Cut out any dead, diseased or crossing branches right back to healthy wood.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Renovation pruning: Every 4\u20135 years remove one in three of the oldest stems to the base after flowering; repeat over two seasons to rejuvenate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Avoid old wood: Never cut into brown, leafless stems \u2013 broom rarely reshoots from them.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Aftercare: Water well in dry spells and mulch with garden compost to encourage strong new growth.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Feeding: Broom thrives in poor soil; if growth is weak apply a low\u2011nitrogen fertiliser in early spring.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Pests & diseases: Watch for aphids or spider mites in hot weather; treat with insecticidal soap if needed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Brooms (Cytisus and Genista) are sun\u2011loving, drought\u2011tolerant shrubs that burst into clouds of pea\u2011shaped flowers from April to June. Although they\u2019re generally low\u2011maintenance, a light annual trim keeps them compact and floriferous. Left unpruned...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-garden-plants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/gardening-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/gardening-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/gardening-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/gardening-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/gardening-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/gardening-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/gardening-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/gardening-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/gardening-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenadvice.co.uk\/gardening-tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}