Warm Season Gorse Substitute

[Ryan Farrow]

All,

Looking for a Warm Season substitute for Gorse. Southern China. Warm all year round, very wet in the summers and dry in the winters.

Need a good yellow bloom. Any suggestions?

[Micah Woods]

Forsythia? Or use bougainvillea and get apricot or white instead of yellow?

[Jason Topp]

Yellow water hazard stakes?

Other than being traditional, gorse sucks as a hazard. 

[Mike Nuzzo]

use local and crunchy looking - give up on the yellow first...

[Ryan Farrow]

Mike, local is easy, local is good...... I can wish for anything but if its hard to get or expensive, its not going to happen.....

The Forsythia looks damn good though, sounds like its common, native to parts of China. Would like to find more photos of it when its not in bloom.... but good, fast growth, dry, sandy soils (sand cap, on the tops of mounds/slopes) looking like a winner so far.

[Don_Mahaffey]

Import something cheap that spreads like crazy and is hard to control.

[Garland Bayley]

Camellia nitidissima formerly known as camellia chrysantha.



Section Chrysantha (yellow camellias):
C. chrysantha, C. chrysanthoides, C. cuphuongensis, C. euphlebis, C. flava, C. impressinervis, C. liberofilamenta, C. nitidissima, C. petelotii, C. pingguoensis, C. tunghinensis

In China camellia is know as the "tea flower" (cha-hwa), because the species camellia sinensis is the plant that is used to make the tea you drink.

[George_Williams]

Spanish Broom- yellow- have seen it in Texas, California & other areas...

[Adrian_Stiff]

Yes - Spanish Broom  (Genista Hispanica) might work, very like gorse but for warmer climates.

[Matthew Mollica]

Spanish broom would look good, but I too doubt it would hold up in the wet.
It thrives in poor soil here in Melbourne but we're not exatly wet anymore...

MM

[Tony Ristola]

A Broom of some type might work.

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/pnw/pnw103/

For far out of play areas, this is a decent low ground cover.
White flowers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_spinosa

.

[Will MacEwen]

The Broom on Vancouver Island is highly invasive and there are loads of task forces combatting it.

http://www.broombusters.org/

[Tom_Doak]

Ryan:

I would be careful what you wish for.  If your choice is as invasive as gorse, generations of Chinese will not remember you fondly!

My last trip to Hainan Island, we went to a wonderful arboretum and tropical park way down the east coast near the Weiskopf course in Boao.  Can't remember the name of it right now, though it is a highly-visited tourist attraction there.  The gentleman who has spent the last 25 years putting it together was happy to share his expertise, though he said that the plants he had there were not as useful for our site on the northern end of the island.  The warmer and wetter your site, the more use his help would be.

[Garland Bayley]

The camellia is not invasive and has a long history (as you can imagine being the tea plant) in China.
 

[Adrian_Stiff]

Just for the record Spanish Broom is not actually a Broom, that is just the common name. Spanish Broom is a Genista.

[Matthew Mollica]

Ryan,

maybe too late for the project discussed at the start of the thread,
but a great one to keep in mind with more work in China is -

Rhaphiolepis indica (known as Indian Hawthorn).



It is a Chinese native, and can flower white or pink. The white looks better & are often more petite.
The leaves are evergreen-dark and slightly glossy.
The white flowers are out in late winter to mid spring, and are somewhat reminiscent of the small white flowers
on our leptospermum and melaleuca (tea-tree) here in Australia.

In maturity, Indian Hawthorn would certainly grow to resemble gorse in height and density.

Some basic information on the species here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhaphiolepis_indica

Matthew

[Bill_McBride]

Import something cheap that spreads like crazy and is hard to control.

Kudzu!

[Ryan Farrow]

Matthew, the links style course turned into a sand dunes style course (its been open for a few months now):

[Kris Spence]

Ryan, there is a variegated or yellow tip juniper variety that looks very similar to gorse especially from a distance.  The end result of hitting a ball into it is much the same, sort of prickly and  you are mostly out of luck.  There are some plantings of it behind the first tee at Jefferson Lakeside CC in Richmond VA where we are doing a project and every time I'm there it catches my eye like gorse in bloom.  I will look for a photo or take one if I get the chance.

[Ryan Farrow]

Thanks Kris, we may need a little of it for a course in Thailand. It sounds great. The prickly part is an important attribute 

[Bill_McBride]

Southern Dunes goes to China!

Matthew, the links style course turned into a sand dunes style course (its been open for a few months now):

[Jim Eder]

Ryan,

From the pics you posted, the course looks really, really interesting.  It looks terrific.

[Ben Sims]

Ryan,

For godsakes please refer to a plant biologist or something similiar before throwing something in the ground.  Not to be a prick, but I don't know of anyone on this board qualified to suggest a plant to this region without serious ecological repercussion. 

Ask the folks in Bandon if gorse introduction was a good thing.  Or ask my 90 year old grandfather back home Georgia if he wishes they had it to do all over again in regards to kudzu. 

[Garland Bayley]

Ryan,

For godsakes please refer to a plant biologist or something similiar before throwing something in the ground.  Not to be a prick, but I don't know of anyone on this board qualified to suggest a plant to this region without serious ecological repercussion. 

Ask the folks in Bandon if gorse introduction was a good thing.  Or ask my 90 year old grandfather back home Georgia if he wishes they had it to do all over again in regards to kudzu. 

Well, then I guess you haven't been paying very good attention.

[Garland Bayley]

A southern China native