How do u prune spirea?
Question:i just had a baby and was unable to do my spring cleanup and pruning. now my spirea are huge and wild looking. can i totally chop them or will it damage/kill them?
Answers:
You could cut them back at any time of the season if size or shape is a consideration.
Basicly, for established plants cutting back to 6-8" in a spring is a common practice. When you do that, remove the oldest, thickest and therefore unproductive stems. In no time your spirea will be the same size as a season before.
You could shear them right after the bloom and they'll rebloom for you in a August-September.
For yellow leaved cultivars (Goldflame, Goldmound etc) second pruning/shearing is even more desirable since new yellow/copper/red growth is the main attraction of the plant, not a flowers.
During the second pruning you may cut shrub in a half with no ill effect. Cutting deeper will not give plant enough time to gain former size by the fall.
Note of caution, be sure to collect all remnants (leaves, branches, twigs) after pruning. Spireas roots easily and you may end up with unwanted plants in unwanted places. While they could be easily removed while young, 2-3 years old seedlings have a good size root system and might be not a good companions for not so agressive perennials
chop 1/3 of the growth off of it! it will recover nicely!
they are hardy. I use to just cut it whenever & it would be fine
You can cut the plant back pretty hard it will have no problem I just did my property and had about 50 spirea that were all about 4 foot wide and I cut the back to foot and a half. now everything is leafing out like it didn't matter
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