There’s Still a Little Fall Color in the Front Garden

It seems that the fall colors are slow to fade from one plant in particular in our front garden: spirea. This little shrub was transplanted from a previous location further down the sidewalk. It was little, just a small sprig that emerged in the spring after we bought the house. The previous residents allowed the landscape to grow out of hand and the real estate company had many of the overgrown plants removed. I suspect that other spireas were present but that they were removed as part of the “reclaim the sidewalk from the landscape plan!”

This fall it began to glow with a fiery red color that would have looked really nice if the whole plant had changed at the same time. Unfortunately the spirea foliage changed at different rates and I never noticed the colors until now when nearly everything else is bare. Spirea is a nice plant with several really spectacular cultivars out there like ‘Bridal Wreath’. I’m not sure of the exact identity of this one but it’s probably ‘Magic Carpet’. I have noticed problems with aphids from time to time on the spirea, but aphids seem to effect almost every plant at some point.

How to Propagate Spirea

Spirea is another easy plant to propagate, especially from hardwood cuttings. Usually all you need to do is insert a few hardwood cuttings in potting medium and let them go. I do use rooting hormone to help it along but it may not be necessary. I take a 4-5 inch cutting below a node, dab it in rooting hormone, and put it in sand. Pinching the growth tip will help redirect growth down into roots of the cutting and encourage branching later when foliage growth appears.