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
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