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Too few gardeners are acquainted with members of the pea or pulse family, many of which grow in my rock garden and border. All excite inquiries and enthusiasm from visitors. All are hardy, long-lived and easy to grow, needing little or no special care.

The first to bloom are the dwarf genistas or brooms, rock garden treasures which differ only slightly from the cytisus, also called brooms. Early in May in my Maine garden neat little Genista pilosa begins to show a color change in its clump of small, grayish green leafy stems. The buds appearing thickly at every branch tip are pale lavender and woolly, but the little close-packed spikes soon open into a mound of golden pea-blossoms. The plant fairly blazes for several weeks.

Next to bloom is Genista sagittalis, with dull green strap-shaped leaves 6 to 8 inches long, nearly prostrate along the ground. The fat buds and new leaf growth are strikingly different from the mature plant, much lighter green and intensely woolly, with little apparent relation to the foliage beneath. The buds. soon produce similar but larger bright yellow blossoms – a glorious splash of spring color cascading over a flat gray rock.

The oddest of all is tiny Genista silvestris pungens, formerly listed as Genista dalmatica, a dense, prickly little mat of spiny bright green stems with brilliant golden flowers. This buds soon after Genista sagittalis. All three genistas seem to delight in a light, sandy, gritty soil in full sun, with rocks as natural companions. Although a limy soil is sometimes recommended for Genista silvestris pungens. it seems happy in the same rather acid soil as the others near bear-berry, bird’s-foot violets and- bristled asters.

Genista tinctoria, the old-time dyer’s greenweed or common woadwaxen, thrives in the same sandy soil hut requires much more room than the others. A mature, well-established plant will stand about 3 feet high, with as great a spread of its brown, woody branches, making a thick, leafy clump. The new stems are light green; the leaves, a light gray-green, are larger than those of Genista pilosa and thickly set on the whiplike stems. Last spring, many branches on one side of my plant grew out across the path, while the other side stood almost straight up, backed against a large boulder. The early-formed buds open in late June, producing a long-lasting wave of solid gold color over the green foliage clump. When cut back again after blooming, the plant usually sends out a lesser burst of bloom in late summer. A clump of darker-foliaged heather makes a natural companion for this member of the pea family, especially effective when cold weather has shaded it to reddish-purple and bronze. The dark gray-green rosetted mats of pussy-toes (Antennaria dioica) are an interesting contrast as a groundcover beyond the shrubs.

Genistas may be grown from seed but have not germinated well for me; the seedlings usually fail to survive their first winter in the open. Layered branches or cuttings may be more successful.

by G Babb