Gardening: Gorgeous gorse

Even before the warm days brought about a magical transformation of the countryside, gorse has been flowering to some degree.

It seems to be able to cope with chilly weather and open early flowers, even though the bush itself is not fully hardy in a severe frost – like those of 2010, when large areas of gorse were killed to ground level, from where they sprouted and grew back.

Familiar

Gorse is very familiar in every part of the country, known by various names in different parts: gorse, furze, whin and in some places simply ‘bush’.

Good most years and a cheering sight in a gloomy spring, the flowering of the wild gorse has been truly remarkable this spring.

It is densely laden with flowers along each spiny branch. Whole hillsides are a blaze of yellow, particularly when the sun splashes upon them against a dark background.

Dry soil

Gorse grows in dry soil and raised ground which is why it is seen on hedgerows and dry banks. It thrives in dry soil, being in the pea family and fixing its own nitrogen.

The gorse is a good example of a native, wild plant that can be stunning in the countryside, but does not make it into the garden.

here is, however, a double-flowered form of the common gorse, Ulex europaeus Flore Pleno, which is occasionally planted in gardens.

It looks exactly like the wild gorse, except that it has double flowers. It has the advantage of being sterile and setting no seeds. It is grown from softwood cuttings.

The wild plant sets lots of seeds and these come up readily, so it is not so wise to deliberately plant the ordinary wild gorse in a garden, although it could be planted at boundaries where the garden meets the countryside.

Start

If you wished to start off gorse, the best way is to sow some seeds in pots.

Gorse has a habit of holding onto its old foliage which dries out and becomes a fire hazard in an urban setting where it might be set alight and it is often burned on hills to improve grazing.

There is another form of gorse called autumn gorse, Ulex gallii, which is also native, though much smaller, and flowers in the second half of the year, most memorably with purple heather in rocky places on hills.

Its larger cousin often gets the accolade for flowering late as well as early, and indeed some individual bushes of the common gorse do flower late.

Apart from these natives, there are gorse relatives from other lands where they fill much the same role on dry hillsides that the gorse does here, and it is worth noting that all these plants love dry, well-drained soil and full sunshine.

Spanish gorse

One of the most showy and easiest to grow is the Spanish gorse, Genista hispanica, a low-growing, mounded shrub that spreads to over one metre, with shoots so dense that weeds do not come through.

It is magnificent in flower just now. Another superb gorse relative is Genista lydia, not as dense, more elegant than the Spanish gorse and later to flower.

The two low growers, Genista pilosa and Genista sagittalis are excellent on a low bank or a large rockery, rolling tumbles of arching shoots massed with yellow flowers.

There is even a tree, called Mount Etna broom, Genista aetnensis, a most elegant weeping tree with slender stems that carry a fine show of small, yellow flowers in summer.

Despite its origins in Italy, it grows well here in dry, well-drained soil.

Late spring has delayed the sowing of vegetable seeds outdoors in open ground, even though there are still plenty of vegetables that can be sown.

The delay is only a couple of weeks on a normal season, so there is time to sow carrots, parsnips, peas, broad beans, French beans, beetroot, chard, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, rocket and salad leaves of all kinds.

The late spring has delayed the sowing of vegetables seeds outdoors in the open ground, even though there are still plenty of kinds of vegetables that can be sown.

If you have a glasshouse, or tunnel, you will have been able to sow vegetable seeds in cell trays under cover and these can soon be planted out.

You can now sow the seeds of courgettes, squashes and pumpkins, sweetcorn and runner beans for planting at the end of May. The garden centres now stock a good range of vegetable plants, but buy only nice, fresh plants.

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