Is Sweet Broom an Annual or Perennial?

Landscape Uses

• Use drought-tolerant sweet broom to plant dry hillsides and disturbed areas. This hardy plant will put down roots even in difficult conditions. Sweet broom is well suited for growing in border areas, along fences and around buildings where the evergreen foliage provides a year round visual screen. You can also use this evergreen for a hedge, or plant it as a specimen in the landscape. Sweet broom also works well in large patio planters around outdoor living spaces.

Spacing and Growing

• Plant sweet broom in full sun for the best growth and flowering. When planting new plants, space sweet broom 3 feet from buildings, walls and other structures and 3 to 4 feet from other shrubs. Water regularly after planting for the first season. Once established, water sweet broom once a month during dry weather. Sweet broom is generally free of pests and diseases.

Growing Sweet Broom as an Annual

• Sweet broom is fast growing, making it suitable as an annual outside USDA hardiness zones 8 through 10. Plant new plants in spring and grow them through the summer and fall. Pull out and discard the dead plants after the winter freeze and replant the following spring. You can also grow sweet broom in containers outdoors through the mild months and overwinter indoors.

Care

• Fertilize sweet broom in spring, before the new growth and flowers emerge, using a balanced 10-10-10 granular fertilizer. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of fertilizer around the soil at the base of the plant and then water it into the soil. Prune sweet broom in spring to remove dead flower heads and any dead branches. You can use pruning shears to remove individual branches. If you want a formal look, shear the outside of the sweet broom plant after the last of the flowering. Disinfect your pruning tools by dipping them in a mixture of three parts water to one part bleach after pruning to avoid spreading disease in the garden.

Invasive Potential

• Sweet broom is not specifically considered invasive, but some of its close relatives are noxious weeds that take over large areas of natural habitat. A member of the legume family, sweet broom and its relatives develop brown seed pods after flowering. Some members of the genus, like scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius), hardy in USDA 6 through 8, produces large numbers of seed pods and spreads aggressively.