Part of the
You Can Learn Landscaping and Gardening series.
By Ken Brown
Editor, YouCanLearnSeries.com
Updated: December 17, 2006
The Spirea comes in many shapes and sizes. From low shrubs that are easy
to maintain like the Little Princess and Goldflame Spirea and the beautiful
large Vanhouttei. For years we had Vanhouttei spireas in our back yard. The
large plants would produce beautiful white flowers that made the plant appear
to be covered in snow. Now we own Little Princess Spireas and Goldflame
Spireas, that enchant us with color and flowers for 3 seasons.
I recommend you plant your new spireas in spring or fall for best results. You
can plant them along borders, to hide foundations or as large hedges to screen
fences and neighbors. We used the Vanhouttei to hide our 6 foot back yard fence
as this plant can grow to 6 or 7 feet tall. The Little Princess Spirea hides
the foundation of our garage along our entry way. In our backyard garden area
we utilize the mutlticolored Goldflame Spirea to bring us multi-season joy as
we sit on our patio.
We like to keep the Little Princess and Goldflame trimmed down to
a manageable size of about 3 feet tall. You could plant these as speciman
plants, but there are other plants that should be utilized instead of the
spirea.
Plant Spireas in Full Sun or Shade
The interesting thing about these plants is you can plant them in full sun,
some sun or even mostly shade. Keep the soil moist, but in a place that is well
drained. You can figure to plant the dwarf varieties like the Little Princess
and Goldflame spireas 3 to 4 feet apart and the Vanhouttei space 7 to 10 feet
between plants.
I never fertilize my spireas, but I do try to water them during the dry season.
Usually about an inch of water a week will keep them healthy. Of course, with
new plantings, you should water regularly until established.
As I said before, we trim a couple of times a year to keep a balled shape. The
Vanhouttei, we let grow all season long to establish the screening of the
fence. If you want, cut them all the way to the ground and let them regrow
every 3 years or so. Sometimes this helps revive the plant with new growth and
more expressive colors.
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