Spirea Pruning: Coppicing in 1,2,3..... and a pruning rant!

Spireas are one of the most widely used flowering shrubs and can display wonderful flowers in the summer time. In addition these shrubs come in some pretty stellar leaf colors as well. One of my favorites is "Limemound" which has leaves the color of my favorite lemon lime shaved ice. 

There is also one called "Goldflame" which has yellow leaves in the middle of the shrub and then red leaves on the tips like a flame. These all come with pink flowers in the summer, all in addition to the striking leaf color.

Yet in order to get healthy and vigorous plants to put on this full display as actors in your garden some proper pruning and care needs to be done.  Here are my three simple steps for pruning and care of summer flowering spireas.

SPIREA: 1, 2, 3

Early Spring before pruning. New leaves may be started to emerge.

I do have to say that there are some different type of spirea and a few do need to be pruned differently. I will discuss such at the end. Most others will be pruned in the simple manner described below.

This spireas flower on new, current season's branches. Simply put, the more new branches the more flowers. 

Now lets encourage all those new branches!

Step # 1

It's so easy! In EARLY spring just grab a handful of branches in your hand and with a sharp pair of pruners cut them all back down to about 6-8 inches off the ground. Make a nice little round mound. 

YES it really is that easy!

Others watching you from across the street are going to think you killed the plant in this "easy first step." Read on to get a taste of the science.

Prune all the branches down to about 6-8 inches tall

This technique is called COPPICING. Remember that word so you can impress all your friends and neighbors with your horticulture vocabulary when you teach them how to prune their spireas. Coppicing is simply cutting ALL the branches back very short near the ground in order to encourage lots of new, fresh branches to grow. Most spireas need all these new branches because that's where the flowers will be in the summer.

Adventitious Buds will form on this wood, even though you can't see them.

ADVENTITIOUS buds (another impressing term you can use to show how horticulturally astute you are) are buds that are lying just beneath the bark where you can't see them. They will form and become branches only under certain situations where they are awakened.  Coppicing awakens theses hidden, dormant buds and they will then become all those new fresh branches with flowers on the top.

It should look like this when you are done.

Step # 2

This is a good time to add a light application of your favorite shrub fertilizer. There are may types and you have lots of choices in both organic and synthetic. Just make sure it is fairly balanced. In other words the three numbers on the label should close to equal. I like a 14-14-14 for example. In general terms this means 14% Nitrogen, around 14% Phosphorus, and about 14% Potassium. 

Don't use lawn fertilizer as you will grow nice shrubs.......with little or no flowers. 

This spring feeding will allow the nutrients to work down in the soil and be taken up by the plant just in time.

Step # 3

Keep evenly moist and most important ENJOY!!!  It is so rewarding to just watch what this plant will do through Spring as the adventitious buds develop and grow, the branches extend, and the flowers bloom in summer. 

This is what you have to look forward to with proper pruning and care.

You do NOT need to prune this plant again until next Spring. Resist the potential urge to turn it into a nice plant ball or cube, even when you so some landscapers doing it at the big box store. 

A PRUNING RANT

Alright, so I know its a bit creepy (maybe a lot), but I seem to be frequently threatening my students that if they incorrectly prune plants in their future careers, that my disapproving face will haunt them in the night.  Most likely my face already haunts them both day and night, especially around exam time, but this thought does at least get them to pay attention.

There is so much beauty in the variety of form, shape, line, texture, and color that plants produce. It's in their genes! Next time you have the chance to visit a well maintained botanical garden take time to appreciate the differences in the plant's natural forms. 

So why do we see so many plants all pruned into round balls or perfect cubes?  Sure, I appreciate deeply the artistry of topiary. For example I recently was at Disney Horticulture Services in Orlando, FL and was able to see behind the scenes how they create their topiary. It was fantastic, highly engineered, and requires a real expertise in soils, plants, and irrigation!

Yet on many properties the landscape maintenance industry actually has been historically bad at this. An efficient set of motorized power sheers can create balls and cubes out of any plant in record time and it's done at a backbreaking pace, literally. Why plant different plants with different characteristics at all if they are just to be turned into balls?

Ok, I think you get the point! We need to prune plants correctly, and sometimes not prune at all, in order to let plants display the genetic beauty and opulence for which they exist. Of course that's unless it's a Mickey.

EXTRA, EXTRA Read all about it!

There are a few types of spirea that need to be pruned in Summer and Fall instead of Spring. Instead of boring you or getting everyone tongue tied with Latin scientific species names lets try to keep it a bit more simple.

If you spirea booms in spring that prune in summer after flowering, but don't coppice. If your spirea blooms in summer than follow my steps above each year for stellar plants. 

A few shrubs that also do well with annual spring coppicing area:

• Willow
• Butterfly Bush
• Blue Mist Spirea
• Russian Sage
• Dogwood Shrubs
• Smoke Tree
• Elderberry

Plant Profile: Clematis Vine

One of the most fascinating and pleasurable aspects of the art and science of the horticulture and landscaping world is witnessing first hand the year-round dynamic changes of a garden. And it really truly is dynamic, full of energy, and exciting as in spring we watch, in essence, the resurrection of life in the form of exploding buds, emerging flowers, and developing fruit.

I look out upon my own small garden every morning while getting ready for work, and then reexamine it at the end of my work day even before entering the house. I walk through it looking at the day's development of every plant as a method of transition and stress reduction from work to home. And boy does it ever do its job!

During late May the plant on center stage for me during my daily garden tour is the Clematis vine. Like many plants, even the best pictures on glossy pages are no match for the reality of staring in person at the wide open, flat face of a Clematis flower and having them stair, boldly right back at you with flowers as big as your hand.

Clematis Clematis varr.
 

Clematis, Westergard House, Skyler Westergard May 2014

Consisting of more than 200 different species Spring, Summer, and Fall clematis varieties all can be obtained. Most are deciduous vines, but there is some few evergreens as well, specifically Clematis armandii.

Clematis, Westergard House, Skyler Westergard, May 2014

A vine, most clematis will grow 10-12 feet high and 3-5 across with flower diameters being as much as 8 inches across, or as little as just 2 inches. Generally speaking the more vigorous, larger spreading clematis vines boast a smaller flower, but more profusion of blooms. The larger flowering varieties such as the one shown above from my garden do not spread quite as profusely.

Plant your clematis vine where the leaves and flowers are in the sun, but their roots are in the shade. Mine, luckily, was planted well by the previous homeowner with its roots tucked in the cool shade under a nearby shrub, with the rest of the plant being in full sun.  Roots of the plant also need moist soil with plenty of organic matter such as compost or decomposing leaf litter.

Clematis seeds 3, Tanakawho, 8.16.2006, Available at flickr.com

Do not overlook the season when the flowers are spent. The seed heads of Clematis are arguably one of the most interesting and unique seed structures you will see in the garden. The are some who undoubtedly find the seed heads just as interesting and exciting as the flower itself.

Lastly, remember clematis is a vine so use it in the landscape to cover an area you want to hid or to climb on, such as an arbor, trellis, fence, gazebo, or pergola.  With the spectacular flowers and out of this world seed heads perhaps it might even be worth building some new structure in your garden just so you can plant a clematis and have it be part of your own daily garden tour.

Plant Profile: PGM Rhododendron

PGM Rhododendren, Seattle, WA LDS Temple

The PGM Rhododendron is an early flowering, compact, broadleaf evergreen shrub.  I love this plant for its loud profusion of lavender flowers and fragrant scent. To me it smells like some sort of a bubble gum from my childhood.

It likes slightly acidic, organically rich soil which is moist, but not too wet and does well in the shade. 

The PGM is one of the earliest flowering not only Rhody's but spring shrub. It explodes with brilliance in April and, in the Puget Sound, vigorously beckons in spring earlier than spring wants to be beckoned.

Design uses could be as a broadleaf evergreen screen for year round green or as a spring focal point. I recommend planting the PGM in close enough proximity to patios and walkways where the flowers and fragrance can be enjoyed up close and personal. This little guy can certainly stand alone, but if so repeat it in several other places throughout the yard for balance and repetition. In the right area it could also be used as an informal, loose hedge as is done on the grounds of the Seattle LDS Temple in Bellevue, WA. There it is used to create a ring hedge around a circle of lawn resulting in a perfect outdoor room.