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Golden Chaintree
(Laburnum x wateri)

Waterer Laburnum

Hybrid between Scotch Laburnum (L. alpinum) and Common Laburnum (L. anagyroides)

Family: Fabaceae (Pea)

Native: Alps, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia (L. alpinum) and Central and Southern Europe (L. anagyroides)

Hardiness: Zones 5-7

Growth Rate: Medium, 12-18" per year

Uses: Specimen, rocky slopes, espalier, container

Photo: Golden chaintree in bloom, http://gcconline.georgian.edu/taxonomy/images/chain100.gif photo at The S. Mary Grace Burns Arboretum of Georgian Court College, located in the New Jersey Pine Barrens in Lakewood, Ocean County, New Jersey. Use your browser's BACK button to return to this page. 

Description:

Habit:

Upright spreading to round-headed. Some forms weeping.

 

Size:

15 – 20" tall, 10 – 15" spread

 

Flower:

In May and June, yellow, fragrant, pea-like 3/4" long on pendulous clusters to 12" long.

 

Fruit:

Elongated 12" pod, green turning to black.

 

Leaves:

Bright green in summer, to 2 1/2" long, in groups of three, clover-like.

 

Trunk and Stems:

Olive green eventually developing brown cracked areas.

Planting & Maintenance:

Propagation:

Cuttings: Leaf bud, root sprouts

Seed: Scarify

 

Site:

Full sun or light shade in the hottest part of the day, moist well-drained soil.

 

Water:

Medium.

 

Fertilization:

Medium.

 

Temperature:

Prefers cooler summers.

 

Pruning:

Late summer to early winter. To shape. To espalier. To form arch. To eliminate included bark.

Cultivars:

Pendulum

Graceful, weeping form

 

Vossii

Dense form with racemes up to 2’ long.

Problems:

Diseases:

Leaf spot, twig blight, laburnum vein mosaic

 

Insects:

Aphids, mealybugs.

Article written by Rachel Swinford

References:

Manual of Woody Landscape Plants, Michael A. Dirr, Department of Horticulture, University of Georgia, Revised 1998.

Landscape Plants of the Southeast, R. Gordon Halfacre and Anne R. Shawcroft, Fifth Edition, 1989

Pruning & Training, Christopher Brickell and David Joyce, The American Horticultural Society, 1996


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