Brooms are lovely spring-blooming shrubs, but they are way more valuable for their ability to grow where other plants wouldn’t survive.

yellow broom: Far dearer to me are yon humble broom bowers, Where the blue-bell and gowan lurk, lowly, unseen; For there, lightly tripping amang the wild flowers, A listening the linnet ...

It's also an invasive species. That almost goes without saying. Anyone who's lived on Vancouver Island for any length of time has seen the massive spread of the stuff. It has flooded B.C. Hydro's ...