Spirea performs best in full sun, producing more blooms, vibrant color and brighter fall foliage. Dig a hole slightly deeper than the root ball and 2 times wider. Thanks! View our Privacy Policy here. Spring-blooming spirea features an elegantly cascading habit with prolific clusters of white blooms atop bowing branches. Set the plant in the hole with the top of the root ball at or slightly above soil level. By signing up you are agreeing to receive emails according to our privacy policy. Try to trim some of the old branches back every fall so your hydrangea always has fresh growth. Spireas dont like wet feet, so avoid oversaturating the soil. Cultivating and designing the ideal garden spot is one of her favorite activities especially for gathering with family and friends for good times and good food (straight from the garden, of course)! To keep your plants in top form, join us now for a look at how to prune spirea for sumptuous shrubs. Hello. Cut back by as much as two-thirds in winter when plants are dormant. Sizes range from dwarf types, such as Little Princess, to larger shrubs that grow to 5 feet or taller. Find more tips on pruning spirea shrubs here. Water deeply but less frequently to encourage deep, healthy roots. All Rights Reserved. Water thoroughly to settle the soil. Related: 10 Low-Maintenance Plants for Landscapes. Clip these off as you find them in order to keep your plant healthy. Shrubs that can tolerate rejuvenation pruning are butterfly bush, Annabelle hydrangea, potentilla, and Japanese spirea. Japanese spirea benefits from a hard prune in late winter or early spring, as well as a light pruning to remove the spent flowers and encourage it to bloom a second time in late summer. Old, woody canes can block sunlight to the plants interior, choking out new growth and resulting in bare stems with little or no undergrowth. Spiraea are deciduous shrubs, sometimes suckering, with simple leaves and short racemes, panicles or corymbs of small, 5-petalled white or pink flowers in spring or summer Name status Accepted Advertise here How to grow Cultivation Easy to grow in most moist soils, tolerant of all but the most extreme conditions Propagation Shrubs that bloom later in the summer, such as Bumald and blue-mist spirea and hydrangea need to be pruned in the early . Get planting advice, garden design tips and trends, monthly checklists for your area, product specials and more in our weekly newsletter. Here is more about what we do. P Pruning. First, use gardening shears to remove any damaged or diseased stems, right back to the base. But if your shrubs need to be shaped or resized, this is the time to crop them as outlined above. Like hydrangea, rhododendron, and lilac, spirea (or spiraea) has joined the ranks as one of the most popular flowering shrubs for the home garden. Deciding when to prune spirea depends on the type you have. Remove any unwanted suckers by cutting stems below the soil line. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.
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\u00a9 2023 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. Blooms with crisp white flowers starting in late spring. Use a sharp knife or scissors to remove the petals from the blossoms. Use clean, sharp garden shears or hand pruners to cut away and remove any remaining flowerheads from the previous season. 2023 Gardening Know How, Future US LLC, Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036. Bouquet-like clusters of small white flowers smother the branches in late spring. If you can trace any horizontal roots, rip them out of the ground. [7] Use soil to help keep it up. Not only is spirea low-maintenance, but it also attracts butterflies and other insect pollinators. Copyright 2023. wikiHow is a wiki, similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. 1995-2023 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. I have two growing in pots right now. (Spiraea japonica). ", me with clear and easy-to-understand directions of when/how/why to prune each variety for better blooms and growth. With The Clearest Explanation. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.
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\u00a9 2023 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. Over-watering or a badly-drained soil can cause leaves to turn yellow and die off. The two main trimming periods, in early spring and after blooming, are most important to do each year, but you can also trim your spirea as needed throughout any season. The Wichita Eagle. Planting the shrub in full shade results in stunted growth, and a reduction in the number and size of blooms. Or remove up to one-third of the canopy to shape plants or sculpt into ornamental topiaries. Blue-green foliage sets off clean white flowers, which bloom from late spring to early summer. This image is not<\/b> licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. You can use a garden hose (at least twice a week) to knock many of them off the ends of the branches and out into the lawn where they will die. Prune summer blooming spirea bushes during the winter or in the spring. Maintaining the height and spread of your Spirea Shrub, and to preserve an attractive shape. The Grumpy Gardener says that late winter "is the best time to prune a crepe myrtle because it's leafless and you can easily see all of the branches. This image is not<\/b> licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. Each piece should have a healthy bit of root and above-ground growth. Give your plant a good watering the day before you plan to divide it. This variety does well in partly shady conditions and isn't fussy about watering or soil conditions either. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.
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\u00a9 2023 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. Dig around to find the roots and cut them back. Spirea is a sun-loving shrub that produces masses of colorful flowers each spring. Double Play Gold, an improved form of Goldmound and Goldflame, has brighter yellow foliage, a more compact habit and more profuse flowering. Water the soil around the spirea slowly and deeply about a day or two before you plant to move it, to make the soil easier to penetrate and minimize trauma to the shrub's root system. Once you start letting pieces lie outside the bag your efforts at keeping the yard tidy will end and you will waste more time at the end of the day picking up the pieces. Dig a hole as deep as the root ball and 2 times wider. This image is not<\/b> licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. Start on one stem and cut it back a piece at a time. Try to pull the stems up. 4 Remove damaged branches throughout the year. Because spireas are fast growers, they will recover quickly. You will finish up with a bag of wood chip mulch or a couple of bags of sticks that can be dried and used as kindling. The finely textured mint-green leaves turn a striking coppery bronze in fall. A kaleidoscope of rich fall color occurs in shades of red, orange and purple. Dig a hole slightly deeper than the root ball and 2 times wider. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. Scrape away some soil around the root if necessary. Sundrop Spirea takes the cold without missing a beat. If they are too well fixed for you to pull them up, try a little leverage. Dig down around the stems to get as much of the root out as possible. New foliage is dark red, fading to green, with deep pink flowers in late spring. Japanese spirea can be pruned in fall or early spring to remove dead branches and keep the plants neat. In spring, the new leaves are vibrant red, gradually maturing to gold while retaining red tips at the ends of the branches. If you cut off too long a piece it will not go into the bag. Dwarf Bridal Wreath Spirea . Renewal pruning is frequently used on lilacs ( Syringa spp. Use at least 2 inches of mulch around the base of the bush to help retain moisture. The Best Deer Resistant Plants for Your Garden Find out where you fall in the USDA Hardiness Zones database. Then remove half of the older and thicker stems to ground level. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. the Landscaping Employee Trap Review. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. A few colorful plants to try are coral bells, lavender, catmint, spirea, dwarf butterfly bush and dwarf forms of weigela. If you buy from one of our links,we may earn a commission. To save making a mess in the yard, make sure you have some good strong bags to collect the shrub as you cut it down. Easier-to-eat and kid-friendly 'fuzzless' fruit, these deciduous ornamental beauties produce fragrant pink flowers in the spring and delicious selections with fruit ripening throughout the summer and into the autumn.. Dig. Repeat the process to deadhead the spirea plant through the remainder of the growing season. Cut the entire shrub back to a height of four to 10 inches from the ground when the shrubs are dormant. But it is more correctly known as a shrub because its woody branches persist above ground all year round, and in spring, the new growth emerges not from the ground but on those branches. rounded, intricately branched deciduous shrub 0.1 to 4 m tall with a crown diameter of 1.5 to 3 m (Hitchcock and others 1961, Welsh and others 1987). RELATED: On this page: Basics | Types | Planting | Care | Spirea Pictures| Landscaping Tips. A blast of water from the garden hose usually works to dislodge aphids. 9 Common Geranium Diseases and How to Address Them. 2. Trimming also gets more airflow between branches, which deters fungal infections and is a good way to restore health and vigor to an overgrown, neglected shrub. Use hedge shears. How to plant: Dig a hole that is twice as wide as the container and just as deep. Spirea is one of the most commonly used landscape plants, and for good reason. And both categories will also enjoy a light shear after flowering to remove spent blooms, encourage reblooming, and invigorate foliage. Set the plant into the hole with the top of the root ball at soil level or slightly above. Beautiful flowering shrubs, spirea are enthusiastic growers with woody or cane-like stems that benefit from an annual pruning. Also try S. japonica 'Goldmound', which has similar color-shifting foliage that emerges bright golden yellow in the spring and transitions to chartreuse in the summer and an attractive orange-red in the fall. For varieties of Spirea that bloom in summer, that will usually be late summer or fall.
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