2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Ornamental gardening and forest parks are actively using spirea for landscaping. Lovers of summer residents are well familiar with this beautiful shrub, they are used for group compositions and zoning. Spirea is especially popular for creating hedges. Read about how to choose the right variety, planting and grooming patterns
A little about spirea
Spirea is a deciduous, profusely flowering shrub, undemanding to the soil. Today there are more than 90 varieties that differ in color, shape of inflorescences and sizes. The height of adult plants can be 30-50 cm, and in some it can reach 2.5 meters. By blood formation, they are divided into weeping, erect, creeping, pyramidal.
In terms of flowering time, all varieties are divided into three subgroups: summer, spring and late flowering. Summer ones are distinguished by long bud formation, therefore they are preferred to be planted to decorate the site. All types are aesthetic, are a source of medicinal raw materials and melliferous plants. Plants are frost-resistant, fast-growing, bloom in 3-4 years. Spirea propagates by seeds, layering, dividing the bush, natural shoots.
Why choose a spirea for a hedge?
The spirea has many advantages: unpretentiousness to the soil, good survival rate, growth rate, minimum care, decorativeness. Creeping varieties do not require shaping and are very graceful in natural growth. The hedge, created from different varieties, looks colorful and pleases with flowering throughout the warm season.
In the process of growth, the spirea does not lose its attractiveness; after the summer haircut, many varieties bloom again. Gray spirea is so dense that it is an insurmountable barrier for animals. Japanese has the longest flowering - 45 days.
Due to the various shades of foliage, the fence can be from light green to red. If you need a massive fence, then tall varieties are selected (1, 5 - 2 m). For such a hedge, Billiard's spirea, White, Ivolistnaya, Goldflame, Douglas, Vangutta, Dubravkolistnaya, Thunberg are suitable.
Spirea is ideal for zoning a site, creating a background for flower beds and alpine slides. Border ones include Bumold's spirea, Berezolistnaya, White-flowered, Japanese Dwarf, Anthony Vaterer, Little Princess (60 cm), Golden Princess (100 cm), Shirobana (80 cm).
How to plant a spirea for a hedge
Despite the unpretentiousness, it is still better to plant the bushes in a nutritious soil: a mixture of turf and peat. This will ensure rapid survival and active growth. You need to start with the layout of the place. For a long hedge, you will need some markings to create an even planting line. In the selected area, you need to drive pegs along the edges of the proposed hedge and pull the rope.
Then, at a distance of 50-60 cm, make the required number of holes with a depression of 40-50 cm. Pour the nutrient mixture into the holes, you can add mineral fertilizers (superphosphate, nitrophoska, potassium sulfate). Mix fertilizer with soil and start planting.
The roots must be straightened and completely covered with soil. Try not to "sink" the root collar, this will negatively affect growth. Water after compaction. If you have bought seedlings in containers / pots, do not forget to pre-soak them or water them abundantly. To improve the survival rate, the lower part of the roots needs to be kneaded and straightened a little, this technique activates the plant and stimulates growth. If neighbors gave you seedlings, dividing large bushes, then you do not need to do anything with the roots.
Experts recommend planting in September, but amateur practitioners say that spirea takes root well in spring and summer in cloudy, cool weather.
How to care for spirea
Spirea is ideal for summer residents who prefer rest to work. In the first year, it is advisable to dust the soil with a pitchfork a couple of times, chop the weeds with a hoe. In prolonged dry weather, water should be used. If mineral fertilizers were not applied during planting, then in the first spring after planting, feed and add urea.
After the third flowering, the first haircut is done. If you have tall varieties, it is not recommended to cut below 40-30 cm. After shearing, the bush begins to quickly grow a lush crown and after a month, young shoots grow by 10-20 cm.
Early flowering varieties (Dubrovkolistnaya, Niponskaya, Vangutta, Sharp-serrated) must be cut once every two years, otherwise the plant will not bloom. If necessary, you can only shorten the young shoots, but not completely remove.
Spiraea White-flowered, Billiarda, Ivolistnaya, Berezolistnaya, Bumolda are cut only in September or early spring - the branch is truncated to well-developed buds. On these varieties, inflorescences are formed on young shoots of the current year, with improper pruning, the plant will not bloom. Observing the rules of care, the spirea hedge will delight with its beauty all summer long.
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