Why not grow your own witches’ broom stick for Halloween?

Grow your own witches broom stick? Now pumpkins get mentioned a lot at Halloween, and you may expect a gardening blog to chat on about how easy pumpkins are to grow; how decorative in your border. You may even learn about a method of cultivation used by American Indians, involving pumpkins and called Three Sisters…

But that’s so last year – and you can follow the blog links below to read all about it!

This Halloween, we’re having a look at the plants traditionally used make a witches broom stick.

This is not as random as you might think, the familiar witches’ broom stick was once even more common as until the twentieth century it was the main type of broom or besom used for daily sweeping around the home and garden.

Traditionally the besom was made of a hazel (Corylus) handle or stem with birch (Betula) heather or broom (Genista) brushwood twigs for sweeping. The use of Genista twigs is supposed to have given us the name ’broom’ for this type of brush. The hazel poles were rounded rather than flat; and the twigs or broom ‘stall’ were gathered around to give a rounded sweeping end.

Hazel for the broom handle

Hazel, Corylus avellana, is a very useful plant to grow in your garden or allotment. The common hazel can provide you with material for broom handles, twigs and strong stems to use as plant supports, fencing and edible nuts too. Left to grow unpruned, hazel will become a small single stemmed tree; but if the plant is coppiced you have a multi-stemmed tree. Depending on what you need your hazel twigs for will depend on how large you let the stems grow before coppicing or cropping them, anything up to five years between harvests. Coppicing is where the tree is cut back to 1-3 buds above ground level (see link below for coppicing in the garden).

It can be grown for its decorative properties – corkscrew hazel offers year round interest, with twisted bare stems over winter, dangling catkins in spring, followed by delicate green leaves in summer and nuts which are both decorative and edible in the autumn. Corylus avellana contorta ‘majestic purple’ has pink catkins and reddish purple foliage.

And for the bristle end that sweeps up the dust we need to grow one or more of the following plants –

Betula – Birch

Birch trees are mainly grown for their pale ornamental bark. They make a wonderfully decorative specimen plant in the garden, particularly during the winter months. In smaller gardens, coppicing the birch gives a multi stemmed tree and arguably an even more ornamental one with slim stems of white peeling bark or the more uusual ginger-red tones.

A traditional birch broom is only as good as the brushwood you use, and birch brushwood needs to be seasoned for at least nine months. Too green, and the birch twigs will shrink and go brittle on the handle and fall to pieces – not much use as a brush if they do that!

Heather

Heathers are low growing evergreen shrubs. and as anyone who has waded across a heath will atest, their twiggy stems are sufficiently scratchy to make good brushwood.

The soil type in your garden will determine the heather varieties you can successfully grow. As a general rule winter and spring flowering varieties will grow on chalk or neutral soils. This includes most but not all of the Erica types. Whereas the summer and autumn flowering Calluna and Daboecia require an acid soil. Of course, if you grew them in containers where necessary, you could have heather flowering in your garden all year round.

Genista – Broom

Genista is a shrubby plant species, a member of the leguminous or pea family, also known as needle furze or needle whin. It’s fairly widespread, for example, Genista anglica is found across most of temperate Europe and other genista across northern Africa and Europe. Although there are some similarities of habitats, Genista should not to be confused with gorse (Ulex Europea) which also has the common name of furze.

A plant with good distribution across Europe, especially on heath land and near the coast, Genista has been an easy resource for people to collect and use across the centuries. These days we’re just as interested in the decorative qualities of plants for our garden as we are for their practical uses.

As well as making a good broom stall, Broom can make a decorative garden plant. The flowers are the usual pea family shape, generally yellow, but also found in cream and pink bi-colour. Genista x spachiona has scented yellow flowers in spring and summer. Just to confuse you when you’re looking for one at the plant nursery, the ornamental Genista are also known as Cytisus.

How to make your witches or garden broom

There are various youtube videos, but the BBC Countryfile one is good for showing traditional methods. If you just want a play broom for Halloween, then Wildlife Trust show a quick method

Do you need more info and inspo?

This blog is based on a chapter on plants for Halloween in Plews eBook “In Your Autumn Garden” which is available to download from Plews website.

But we have plenty more ideas for you to have a garden which is ornamental, edible and practical whilst being wildlife friendly, safe for pets, fun for children and easy to look after! We have been sharing gardening tips and inspiration through blogs since 2011 (this one was written in 2013) and creating gardens since 2001 – and are still bursting with ideas for you and your garden 🙂

For further gardening advice and inspiration, check out Plews Potting Shed blogs, including the selection below and our monthly Tipsheet – You could come and find us on Instagram Pinterest and Facebook too.

If you would like help with learning more about your garden and gardening, why not ask about our bespoke Gardening Lessons, where your classroom is actually your own garden. We can help you learn gardening basics, and also show you how to plan an ornamental border or kitchen garden