Spirea (sometimes called spiraea, meadowsweets or steeplebushes) plants are popular additions to any garden, especially because of their unique and brightly colored flowers, and the ease in which they can be planted. Spireas are part of the Rosaceae family, or the Rose family, and they have a number of species which is spread all over East Asia and the Northern Hemisphere.
They tend to bloom during the seasons of spring and summer, and show off a bright combination of pink or green blooms. These are relatively easy plants to take care of, since they bloom throughout most of the year. Thus, with plants like these, the aesthetics of any garden will surely be a sight to behold.
Of course, as with any type of plant, learning how to prune spirea is very important. Maintaining a spirea plant requires being able to identify when there are dying or diseased portions of the plant, and knowing when such parts should be removed.
Then of course, there are other benefits to pruning spirea aside from maintaining its health. Pruning encourages new growth. By removing the old branches, you are telling the tree or plant to make new branches, tender and healthy branches. This also means a more productive bloom, or a more fruitful produce, if your plant bears fruit, like strawberry plants do.
Pruning also lets you really beautify the plant. Flowering plants like spirea or tulips need pruning if they are to grow more beautiful. It encourages healthier and more blooms. It also allows you to shape the growth of the plant or tree on your terms. Pruning is essential for a good landscape. It really elevates your surrounding environment when your plants are clean looking, tight, green, polished and very healthy looking.
Types of Spirea
Plants can come in all shapes and sizes, and it is not uncommon to have many different types of flowers in the same family. Spireas are no different, since they can come in more than one type or classification.
This can be good news for some who want to come up with a landscape composed of a combination of spireas and other plants. Learning about the different types of spirea will definitely help widen the options and possibilities of having newer and better plants as part of your garden.
With the varieties of spirea plants available, you can have a varied, textured and colorful garden using only the same plant family. You can achieve this just by employing only the same growing and caring methods for your garden.
Here are some samples of the types of spirea.
1. Triumphans
Triumphans are a type of spirea that are known for their bright pink and purple flower combination, that makes for a beautiful sight when combined with its deep green colored leaves. Triumphans are considered as one of the more popular types of spirea, and are considered to be a hybrid spirea that blooms often in the summer season.
2. Bridal wreath spirea
Weddings would definitely not be complete without the proper floral decorations to match. Spireas are a good type of plant to use for bridal decorations. One of the types of spirea that is popular amongst wedding florists is the bridal wreath spirea. Bridal wreath spireas are those that are known for their white-colored blooms. This plant can, however, tend to overgrow, which is why learning how to prune spirea may come in handy. They bloom during early spring, and require a lot of exposure to the sun.
3. Spirea densiflora
Spirea densiflora (or rose meadowsweet, dense-flowered spireae, rose or rosy spireae, subalpine spireae or mountain spireae) produces blooms that are rosy pink. They are found mostly on cold, moist or rocky slopes, and mostly grow where there is full sun exposure. Similar to other spirea, the spirea densiflora grow during summer seasons. They are also a beautiful addition to any garden.
Pruning Overgrown Spirea
Maintaining flowers or plants like the spirea requires that you know when the plant has overgrown, and how to control or minimize that overgrowth. Pruning overgrown spirea is important since it allows the healthier portions of the plant to have more room to grow. Overgrown spireas tend to encroach on areas which they should not have reached, and block out sunlight for other portions of the plant which are healthier than others.
Ideally, you should already have a clear vision of how you want your spirea to look like. This way, you can immediately know whether it is overgrown or not.
Pruning also requires the removal of diseased portions of the plant, to prevent such disease from transferring from one part to the next. Stems and flowers which have already died must also be cut-off, since they no longer add any more value to the plant.
To prune spirea, you need to first identify the dead and diseased portions of the plant. Once you have identified all the portions you want to cut off, the next step would be to cut the spirea’s stem tips towards the top-most portion of the leaf on each stem. The most amount of spirea you should cut when pruning is one-fourth of a leaf or bud.
Generally, you need to prune spireas at least twice a year. Trimming it nicely after blossoming in the spring once the flowers deteriorate. This can trigger a second blooming and new leaf growth.
As for taking care of triumphans, it requires that they be constantly pruned in order to maintain any form you might want your triumphans to have. Pruning should also be done when the winter season is about to end, or when spring is about to start, and should only be up to about one-third of the oldest branches on the spirea plant.
When pruning spirea, or any other plant, really, use a clean, sharp pair of shears. You want the cut to be as precise as possible. Messy cuttings may just damage your plant unnecessarily.
Pruning Spirea in early spring
The type of season in which a plant is pruned is also equally important, since harsh seasons such as the winter season may cause the plant to die unexpectedly due to exposure to extremely cold conditions. The cold weather is not friendly to new wounds on the plant caused from pruning, which is why learning about when it is best to prune is important.
Pruning spirea in early spring is a good time to remove dead and unwanted portions of your spirea plant. It is the period of time when the plant suffered a beating because o winter but has a chance of strong rejuvenation because of the spring.
During the summer, the shape of your spirea can still be maintained by cutting overgrown portions of the leaves, stems, or shoots. Pruning during fall is the most ideal time to cut away those unwanted portions of the plant. This allows the plant to grow healthier branches that have better chances of surviving the winter.
All in all, pruning must be done whenever the overgrowth of your plant is unnecessarily encroaching on an area you do not want it to be in. At the least, pruning must be done twice a year, especially during fall or spring.
Conclusion
Spireas are one of the most beautiful and brightly-colored flowers that are available and planted on a frequent basis. They have a variety of colors to choose from, and have even been used for certain applications like bridal or floral decorations. This just goes to show that spireas are definitely a beautiful bunch to consider planting, especially if the aesthetics of your garden are important to you.
As such, maintaining these beautiful plants requires the possession of knowledge and skills in the art of plant growth and maintenance. One such skill which is important to know, is learning how to prune spirea. To prune spirea, you need to know the length, time and seasons in which pruning is ideal. Pruning can also be done as often as overgrowth happens, and at least twice a year. Spireas are indeed a wonderful addition to any garden, and learning how to plant and take care of these flowers will definitely be a valuable skill to learn.
