Toronto Master Gardeners has a Gardening Guide on Deciduous shrubs that has some general information on the care and maintenance of these plants. This article has some good tips on pruning shrubs: This shrub will remain compact, making it perfect for mixed borders, rock gardens, or small-scale landscapes. This would be beneficial if the shrub is severely overgrown which may not be the case for your plant. ‘Magic Carpet’ Spirea is a new compact cultivar from England with dark pink flowers and reddish shoots bearing gold-tinged young foliage in spring. Spirea can take heavy pruning, but for your plant with new growth appearing at its base, this may be best left to next season. Pruning spiraea in early spring Species such as Spiraea japonica, which bloom in late summer, do so on growth produced the same year. Later in the season after the shrub blooms, you can lightly shear your shrub to tidy it up and potentially encourage reblooming. Growth should appear further up the plant as the weather warms up. It is a bit difficult to tell from your photo, but the new growth could be starting where you cut out old branches. It looks from your photograph that you took out some old branches and tried to keep the shape of the shrub. This typically happens sometime in early spring. Each year approximately one-third of the stems can be removed this way. Monitor your spirea and look for signs that its getting new growth near its bottom. This will encourage new stems to grow and the shrub will benefit from more light and air. In general, pruning to maintain the shape of a shrub entails taking out the oldest, largest stems which will not produce as many blooms by cutting them to the ground. Give it a good trim after it flowers in the spring by cutting back the tips of the stems to the top leaf bud. Some summer touch up (after the shrub blooms), to reshape and remove spent flowers, will improve the look of the plant while stimulating additional flower growth. How to Prune Spirea You should actually prune your spirea more than once a year, at least twice. Remove the heaviest canes all the way to the ground. Remove 50 to 75 of the top of the shrub maintaining a mounded form. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 4 through 9, this compact shrub reaches an average size of 18 to 24 inches tall by 24 inches wide and requires full-sun exposure. Magic Carpet is regarded as a low-maintenance plant but benefits from pruning to rejuvenate its growth and to maintain its appearance. You are right to have pruned your Magic carpet spirea ( Spiraea japonica ‘Walbuma’) in the early spring as it is a shrub that blooms on new wood and should therefore be pruned in late winter or early spring while it is dormant and before new growth appears. Prune these shrubs in early spring before they leaf out. Magic Carpet spirea (Spiraea japonica 'Walbuma') brightens a garden with rosy-pink flowers set against a background of bright, yellow-green leaves. Thank you for contacting Toronto Master Gardeners.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |