Question
i planted 4 plants for a friend in Friendswood Texas and now 2 of them look like they are diseased or browning. help please they are beautiful when they are healthily.

Answer
Thanks for your question, Kathy. I shouldn't answer this question, this being the Annuals forum at AllExperts.  Not the place for non-Annuals questions. I stretch the term as much as possible -- Geraniums for instance are not Annuals, but people grow them as Annuals, so I slip those in from time to time.  Broom and other shrubs are, well, shrubs.

But you went to the trouble, how can I not answer it?  We'll see if it posts.

After all, someone growing this in the nearly-perfect Paradise that was named one of the country's top 'Best Places to Live' has my sympathy.

Another problem: I can't be certain about how solid any answer your question would be without photos or a description of the symptoms that make this plant look 'diseased or browning'.

Here's my short answer.

While furiously fragrant Cytisus spachianus is drought-tolerant and delightfully undemanding about the kind of soil it gets, it goes thru hell before you put it in the ground and needs a LOT of TLC. Depending on how long and how deeply it was in hell before it was yours, it may need CONSTANT TLC.  That rule of thumb goes for many easy-to-grow shrubs.  There is so much damage before they get to market, so much more damage when they are waiting to be sold, it's amazing that anything survives the ordeal.

Now, having looked up the weather history for Friendship, Texas, on the Weather Underground website, it appears that your weather has been frightfully hot.  The first week of June, it was in the 90's every day, with not a drop of rain.  Was this plant watered every day???  Did you even own it yet?  How much damage to the roots did it incur before you put it in the ground?

Last week, apparently it rained a little over an inch in Friendship.  But it was still in the 90s.  Imagine this was you standing out there in the sun as the thermometer climbs.  Would you be OK with a glass that was filled with an inch of water?

And that's in addition to everything else it went thru.  Damaged, unestablished roots are practically worthless at obtaining moisture from the ground.  Given the inhuman conditions this bush has likely been thru, it would be amazing if it was able to survive intact.

Also, C. spachianus is not as tough as some of the other Brooms.  This is a native of the Canary Islands, that bucolic archipelago off the coast of Spain where those elephant-sized, vicious eponymous dogs are bred.  Watering it to death may still not work in Friendship, because it doesn't get into the 90's in the Canary Islands.  Geez, it doesn't even get into the 80's.  The only thing that hot there in Canary is an active volcano.

Think of your Cytisus as an ice cream cone.  What happens to ice cream when it's 90 degrees?

Exactly.

In your case, you have been trying to fry ice cream.  You can't do that with Cytisus.  Not c. spachianus, anyway.  Like my mother, it cannot take the heat.

Yes, I know they're beautiful.  Move.

Here on Long Island, I refuse to pay attention to the facts of life.  In my botanical head, there is no reason in the world I can't grow Camellia japonica.  And so mine, a gift to mother, who long since has passed away, continues to struggle, waiting for global warming to heat the North Shore to a Camellia-friendly zone 8a.  And when it blooms, as it does each January when it's 5 degrees F, the petals might not freeze and turn to mush.  I never stop hoping.

We gardeners are like that.  All of us.  We are in a constant state of denial.

Think of it this way.  If you take a piece of bread and you put it in the toaster, it would get crispy and gold.  If you don't want that to happen, and you have to put it in the toaster, what can you possibly do to make that happen?  Because your Cystisus has to go in the toaster every day, and there's no way out of that.

Sounds impossible, right?

It probably is.  But like I said, we never stop trying.

Last word on this: Nurseries are in business to make money.  They may sell you all kinds of things that are very nice when you buy them.  But after pumping hormones and growth factors into their bloodstreams, then putting them on retail shelves to bake in the sun #when it's 90 degrees# and nearly die of thirst, growers are not about to say, Wait a minute, this plant can't grow in Friendship!

You pays your money and you takes your chances.

Friends don't let friends in Friendship buy Cytisus.  Order a nice new shrub -- order a bunch of them -- on Bluestoneperennials.com, where you can look up the Custom Plant Finder for the perfect, fragrant, flowering shrub to replace the one with the near death experience.  Then put your Cystisus in a box and send it to me.  It will love Long Island.

Peace,

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER