Anyone identify this large shrub?

Hi all,
Can anyone identify this large shrub that has been growing in the corner of the garden for years?
Also……. What would be the best time to prune/reduce it by a few feet?
Cheers.

 

Is it evergreen or semi evergreen? I can’t see it very clearly but I’m thinking it could be a very large and fine example of Cytisus ‘Porlock’.

Cytisus 'Porlock' from Burncoose Nurseries

i would leave it as it is. They really do not respond well to cutting back … it could be the end of it, and it really does look to be a good shape as it is … very handsome.

They’re not long-lived plants at the best of times.

 

Yes, I think it’s evergreen.
We also have some other smaller ones on the front drive, so thought it might be self seeding?
It’s about 10 feet tall.
We live on the North Yorkshire coast at the edge of the North York moors national park, where there are a lot of similar yellow shrubs (should really get a photo to compare) would they be gorse on the moors? (Yellow)
Thanks

 

Certainly could be gorse on your moorland @Grays . We have it all around here too. Flowers through winter as well, if conditions are suitable. It's a very good windbreak if you're coastal, and trying to get a suitable habitat for other plants. The big difference between it and the Cytisus in your pic is- the thorns on gorse!

Cytisus [broom] can be trimmed back after flowering, but they don't like being hard pruned unfortunately. Lovely plants.

 

The ones on the moors are likely to be gorse. Gorse is very spiny. Is yours spiny? I can’t see from the photos.

I’d have thought that my first suggestion of Cytisus Porlock might struggle in your location unless it’s in a very sheltered spot.

ETA @fairygirl does it look like Cytisus P to you?

 

I can't see it well enough @Dovefromabove, but it could just be one of the standard praecox types. They can get huge, and top heavy, if conditions suit them.
I've only ever grown those, and mainly the white one as I love it. Porlock isn't meant to be very hardy, so it's possibly more likely to be a praecox type.

Perhaps Porlock's ok in the coastal setting though - but I can't be sure.

 

Interesting @fairygirl
I’ve not grown ‘Porlock’ myself although there was a large one in a garden I used to know well. Ive not known any others to get that big, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen of course

 

Thanks for the reply’s.
I will have a closer look when I get home from work tonight, and maybe some better photos.
I’ll check the others that are at the front too, thinking about it, I cut a dead shrub out at the front last week which may have been the same.
Cheers

 

Genista?

 

I think the leaves are wrong for any genista that I know … and the only genista I know that grows as big as the OP’s is G. aetensis (the Mount Etna Broom), and I’m pretty sure it’s not that.

 

Hi again,
Here are some more photos that might help?
You can see the height of it next to the large Forsythia, there’s a photo from “inside”, and some photos of the rather unhealthy looking ones at the side of the drive. I think @fairygirl said they don’t like a hard prune back, well I may have been guilty of doing that last year whilst trimming the hedge at the same time, it looks like one is barely hanging on, whilst the others look to have had it
Would you just remove them now?
We inherited this garden so the previous occupier must have planted them? But because they are in various locations I thought there may have been a chance they were wild and had self seeded?
Bit long winded…….
Cheers

 

They can certainly self seed, so the others will likely have come from the original plant, or from others in your area. Whether you keep them or not depends on how you feel about them, and whether they're productive. Anything that isn't green just now won't be viable.
It [the main one] looks like it's never really been pruned, so it's just got bigger and bigger, with new shoots higher up which then produce the flowers. It means that you'll only ever get flowering high up like in your original pic.
Cutting it back into old wood will just kill it off completely, because they don't cope with that. Pruning needs to be done after flowering, and only lightly - ie cutting the flowering stems back by about a third or so.
You have two choices really. Either leave it as it is, perhaps tidying up those flowering stems a little after flowering- if you can reach them, or taking it out.
The only other alternative would be to plant something in front of it, if there's room. A climber of some kind maybe, or just a perennial which will hide the bare trunks ,but that may not suit you to do that.

 

I'd get rid of the ones that have significant bare sections and use the spaces for something else. If you want more cytisus (your soil does seem to suit them) there are other colours available. I have a white one (un-named variety from a supermarket) and a deep red one (Boskoop Ruby) and there are various orange and yellow ones.

The big one I think I would prune our any completely dead bits from lower down and plant something lower-growing in front. Cytisus aren't usually very long-lived so you might find that it gives up the ghost all on its own in a few years, but it's flowering well and making a good splash of colour at the moment.

 

Yeah, you learn as you go along don’t you.
The large one in flower, I have pruned before, but only very lightly like you say.
The ones on the front drive I have reduced with loppers unaware of what a hard prune would do, they will have to come out then.
Thanks all.