Japanese spirea

Difficulties in growing

Spirea is an unpretentious shrub, but even experienced gardeners can sometimes have difficulty growing. Sometimes spiraea can be attacked by various parasites and pests. One of the most serious of these is the spider mite. During one growing season of spirea, a tick can change several generations. Whitish specks form on leaf plates infected with spider mites. Soon the leaves of the bush turn yellow, dry and crumble to the ground. Spider mite infestation is most likely during the hottest months of summer. For the treatment of spirea bushes from spider mites, the solutions "Arex", "Metaphos", "Fozalon" or "Fosfomid" are used.

Another dangerous pest for spirea is aphids. It sucks sap from leaf plates, attacks pedicels and young shoots. The greatest peak of aphid activity occurs in June and lasts until the first half of August. To combat aphids use "Pirimor", "Actellik", "Kronefos", "Fozalon".

Also, spirea bushes can be attacked by whiteflies, cut leaf rollers and blue meadowsweet sawflies. For the treatment of bushes, it is advisable to use "Fitoverma" and "Decis Profi". As a folk remedy, you can use a solution of laundry soap, copper sulfate, or sprinkle ash on the bush.

In addition to pests, spiraea can undergo a fungal infection. Most often, the plant recovers without treatment, but in rare cases, the fungus can lead to the death of the shrub. For treatment, you need to use antifungal drugs from horticultural stores, such as "Fitosporin" or "Fundazol". It does not hurt to treat bushes with them from time to time in order to prevent fungal infections of the plant.

For information on how to grow a spirea from a cutting, see the next video.

How to plant?

The process of planting the Golden Princess variety of Japanese spirea should be planned in the spring - this is the optimal time for summer flowering shrubs. It is imperative to take into account the recommended timing, you need to be in time with the planting until the moment when swollen buds appear on the shoots. In addition to spring, you can do this work in the fall, after the plant has shed its leaves. When planting late before winter, the shrub must be carefully covered. And also there are several points to consider.

Choosing the right place

It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that Japanese spireas are quite sun-loving, they grow well in brightly lit areas, especially in the northern regions. In the south, light shading of the seedling is permissible

Avoid lowlands, places where groundwater is close.

Soil preparation. To achieve the most abundant flowering and brightness of foliage colors, it is imperative to choose fertile soil for planting. If the soil is depleted, it is worth adding additional nutrients. This shrub feels good on sandy loam, loamy soils.

Pit formation. It should have strictly vertical walls, exceed the diameter of the earthen coma by 1/3 of its size. Earthworks are carried out 2 days before planting. If you plan to place several plants, the distance between them should not be less than 0.5 m.

Landing site preparation. After the sediment of the soil in the pit is completed, its bottom is tamped, drained with expanded clay or crushed stone, crushed brick chips. A soil mixture is laid on top, created on the basis of sand, peat, turf, taken in equal proportions.

Seedling pretreatment.Before placing it on a prepared place, it is imperative to cut off rotting or dry shoots of the root system, if necessary, shorten them to a total length of no more than 30 cm.Before removing from the container, the soil in the seedling is poured with water, it is worth choosing a bush without foliage, it will take root better.

Planting a plant. It is carried out on top of the prepared soil layer. The plant is placed with straightened roots, without deepening the neck below ground level. Further, the rest of the soil mixture is laid in the pit, the surface is compacted, and abundant watering is performed. After planting, the trunk circle is carefully mulched with a thick layer of sawdust and shavings.

When choosing a seedling, it is worth considering that Japanese spirea at the time of planting should not have leaves. If the buds have already blossomed, the survival rate will be extremely low.

How to take care of it properly?

Caring for the Goldflame spirea consists, like most plants, in watering, loosening the soil, and feeding. Watering is necessary regularly, but in moderation. Water should not be allowed to stagnate. Especially carefully you need to monitor the bushes in the heat, not allowing the top layer of the earth to dry out. This slows down the development of the plant and impairs its decorative qualities.

The oxygen supply is important to the roots, therefore, with each watering, it is also necessary to loosen the soil. And it is also good to carry out mulching using peat or compost.

The shrub will bloom profusely only if the soil is fertile. Spirea can be fed with organic and mineral fertilizers. During the growing season, it is necessary to feed the shrub no more than 4 times. It is advisable to combine this procedure with watering.

An important point in caring for a plant is pruning, which allows the shrub to form beautifully. It should be started when the spirea turns 4 years old from the moment of planting. There are several pruning options: sanitary, anti-aging and shaping.

After the winter period, it is important to remove from the bushes shoots that have dried up or have been damaged by frost. In the fall, it is necessary to cut off the inflorescences

It is advisable to also carry out the formation of the crown in the autumn months so that it is lush. The shape of the plant can be given absolutely any.

Young bushes need shelter for two years. To do this, you need to loosen the soil and sprinkle mulch with a layer of 15 centimeters. Burlap is placed on top and fallen leaves are poured onto it. Then the stems must be bent to the ground, fixed with staples and wrapped in non-woven material. When the temperature is fixed at values ​​above zero, you can remove the shelter and remove the staples, freeing the shoots.

Appearance

Spiraea birch-leaved "Tor" is a compact deciduous spherical plant about 70 cm high, the diameter of a dense spreading crown reaches 1 m or more. Young branches are ribbed and curved, have a reddish tint, old ones are brown. The leaves of the spirea are broadly ovoid, serrated, with a wedge-shaped base, they resemble birch leaves, for which this spirea received such a specific name. The color of the leaves is dark green with a steel sheen in summer and deep yellow or red-orange in autumn. On the underside, the color of the leaf is lighter, protruding veins are noticeable, the leaves reach 4 cm in length.

Spiraea birch-leaved blooms in late June, starting at 3 years of age. The scutellum inflorescences are 5-7 cm in diameter, they are dense, consisting of 20-90 small five-petal flowers, 7-8 mm each. The color of the petals is light cream. In August, the flowers begin to fall off, but sometimes they can bloom again.

Top dressing and reproduction

The ornamental shrub should be fed after pruning in the middle of summer, as well as annually mulch the soil with peat or chopped bark.

It is necessary to observe moderate watering, increasing it only during periods of active drought. Younger plants need more watering; for mature plants, this can be reduced. Also, young spireas respond well to loosening the earth.

Spirea bushes are best propagated by cuttings or layering. The plant is cut in summer, starting in mid-June. The shoot is planted in a mixture of equal proportions of sand and peat and sprayed abundantly several times a day to maintain a high humidity level.

It is necessary to provide the layers with regular good watering and then by autumn they will transform into independent bushes.

Use in landscape design

Spirea Japanese Golden Princess is of keen interest among professionals in the field of landscape design. A compact bush is well suited for creating a variety of compositions, namely:

• curb landings;
• edges;
• mixborders;
• rockeries;
• rock gardens;
• mixed combinations with herbs;
• flower beds combined with flowers.

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Thanks to the brightness of the colors, this variety of spirea can become an effective accent in monochrome landscape plantings. With its help, you can arrange the entrance group, driveways. When creating seasonal compositions of variegated spirea plantings, the Japanese Golden Princess is also absolutely irreplaceable. The variety is distinguished by long flowering - this property is also quite successfully used in the design of gardens and parks.

Since the Japanese Golden Princess spirea lends itself well to pruning and grows quickly, it is actively used in the creation of borders. The variety allows you to create wide or narrow strips of green spaces with unusual foliage coloration. With the help of low-growing shrubs, protective zones are successfully formed, delimiting individual elements of the landscape. In hedges, it can be combined with thuja, spruce, juniper.

More information about the spiraeus of the Japanese Golden Princess awaits you below.

Planting and caring for the plant

Spiraea japonica is a shrub that is very popular among designers, including landscape ones, and it gained such popularity due to its decorative properties: they persist from the first days of spring to the very frost. The cost of planting material is low, and you can buy it literally in every nursery.

Despite all the luxury during the flowering period, Spiraea japonica is easy to care for and plant. A feature of this plant is its excellent adaptability to conditions and climate, because it is very hardy and can easily adapt to all natural conditions, soil quality, etc.

On the territory of our state, meadowsweet, and this is exactly what its second name sounds like, is grown literally everywhere, from the southern coast to cold and arid regions. However, there are several varieties that can freeze under severe winter conditions. Spring pruning will be necessary to protect them. It is needed for sanitary purposes. After this event, the bush will be able to recover and present abundant flowering in the same year.

Spirea (meadowsweet) enough 3-4 hours of direct sunlight during the day, and then, with this minimum, the owner of the plant will be able to admire not only its lush growth, but also abundant flowering. In regular sunlight, the shrub, respectively, will be even richer.

Agrotechnical features of cultivation

Not very important for the spirea are the conditions usually necessary for other plants, such as: a method of shelter in winter; watering intensity; soil fertility. Watering meadowsweet is required only during the first year after planting in the soil.

Special recommendations for pruning are not provided, but under skillful hands the crown of the plant is perfectly formed. The shrub can grow from 30 cm to 1.5 meters.

This indicator depends on which particular variety was planted. The shape of the crown is in some cases thickened and dense, in others it is disheveled and sparse. But basically it can be described as spherical. The foliage is very good, the trunks are not visible even at the very ground.

Spiraea japonica is often not only interested in amateurs and beginners.Information about it and images with its beautiful flowering can be found even on the pages of catalogs with planting material. There, many different varieties are provided to the attention of gardeners. Flowering begins in July and does not stop until August.

Only those shoots that have appeared in the plant in the current year bloom. The usual ripening period for spirea seeds is October. Daughter plants take root without much effort. For successful rooting, you need to dig a hole, the size of which will correspond to the size of the root system. If the soil is fertile, then planting will not require additional fertilization.

This shrub is often used as hedges. For this purpose, in particular, the spirea of ​​the Albiflora variety is suitable.

Decorating the plot with meadowsweet plantings

The shrub looks bright all year round, therefore it is very practical for the design of garden plots. The beauty of meadowsweet lacks so-called gaps that would affect a certain season.

The roots of the plant do not entwine the root systems of nearby plantings, and the bush itself does not differ in a large number of root shoots. This beauty gets along well with any environment.

Landscape designer's recommendation: a variety of Japanese spirea, such as "Chrysla", can be successfully used when creating a shrub-tree group, where its main purpose will be to camouflage high-growing representatives of open trunks. These may include, for example:

• magnolia;
• lilac;
• chubushnik.

The compactness of the meadowsweet bush makes it possible to plant it, including in flower beds with annuals and bulbs. They can even decorate a rose garden, in which low-growing perennials are also found.

Spirea will be indispensable where you need to create a bright single image, for example:

• Dividing border.
• Hedge.
• When planting slopes.

You need to cut the planting of this plant once a month, but the plant, of course, will not bloom. For this reason, before planting, it is recommended to decide in advance in what capacity this shrub will be considered: as an ornamental deciduous form or as profusely flowering.

Meadowsweet lends itself excellently, the bush is well developed and completely leafy. Some plants of the compact variety give wonderful golden foliage, such as the Japanese Spirea Goldmound.

Rejuvenating or sanitary pruning is carried out in such a way that the symmetry of the shoots is not disturbed. Only dead wood and broken off branches are cut out. Bushes that are older than 4 years are subjected to more detailed pruning, several branches are removed from them up to the trunk.

Variety of species

One of the plant is many varieties with noticeable differences. Different options can be combined for greater effect.

The most common spirea:

1. Fortune
   ... Tall shrub with erect branches and long reddish leaves, which turn green in summer and bluish in the lower part. The flowers are bright pink, fluffy from the stamens.
2. Macrophylla
   ... This variety is distinguished by large leaves with jagged edges and inflorescences of a rich raspberry hue. In order for the upper part of the growing shoots to receive a bright color, it is necessary to cut the plant to 10 cm before the budding begins. It begins to bloom at the end of July.
3. Shirobana
   ... The height is no more than 80 cm. It looks very unusual, since initially the white inflorescences change color to pink and then to red.
4. Little princesses
   ... A compact bush (up to 60 cm) with delicate mauve inflorescences and dark green foliage with sharp tips that form a compact crown. Shoots are light brown. Flowering time is July and August.
5. Reddish
   (Ruberrima). Height up to 1.3 m, carmine-red flowers are a special feature.
6. Dark red
   (Atrosanguinea). Reaches 70 cm, new shoots are bright scarlet, flowers are clove-red.
7. Alpina
   ... Dwarf shrub (30-40 cm) with light pink flowers and green leaves.
8. Golden princesses
   ... Low, up to 1 m, shrub, characterized by yellow leaves, with which pink flowers are in harmony.
9. Goldflame
   ... Young leaves are yellow-orange, gradually they change their color and acquire a bright yellow, then green-yellow tint. The flowers are pink-red.
10. Spirea is very common Boomald
    Is a hybrid of Japanese and white-flowered. The crown is neat, spherical, the flowers are painted in light and dark shades of pink.

In the photo spirea japanese golden princesses

In the photo spirea Japanese goldflame