Maintaining Spiraea

Hello all

I Hope you are Well.

I have Four Spiraea in the Back Garden, Three Spiraea japonica 'Genpei' and One Unknown.

They have not really Filled Out well and having been somewhat, not Neglected but, not Cared for properly over the Last Couple of Years I am now in need of some Advice, Please

This is how they look at the moment:

Spiraea japonica 'Genpei':







Unknown Spiraea:



They all have New Growth so at least they are still Alive, which is something.

Since the Photo was taken of the Unknown Spiraea I have cleared some of the Lower Fatsia Leaves to give it more Light.

Any Advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Kevin

 

It's a long time since I've had Spirea in the garden, but if I remember rightly they flower on the previous year's growth so you prune them immediately after flowering. If you want a dense rounded shape you can do it by clipping them all over.When they get mature (not your problem just now) you can take out a proportion of the oldest branches down to the ground each year, or even renovation-prune the whole lot right down.

If you are wanting to tidy yours up now, I would take off no more than the dead flower heads from last year. They're only just coming into leaf so it's hard to tell whether there's dead wood in there or not, but any dead branches can be pruned out (ones that don't start to produce any leaves over the next month or so). They might benefit from a general feed and a mulch around the area under their branches (not touching the bark). And as they're still quite small, a deep watering would be beneficial every now and again if we get a long dry spell in spring or summer (not unusual here on the east side of the country - last year it was mid-May to mid-June just when everything is trying to grow and needs the most water).