Gray Spirea Grefshame is a shrub that can decorate your garden and at the same time does not need special care. Gray Spirea is perfect for people who want to tidy their suburban area, but do not have enough time to care for complex plants. This plant, despite its unpretentiousness, looks very impressive and blooms all the time, it is these qualities that allowed Spirea to take its place of honor among the favorites of gardeners around the world.
The plant reaches one and a half meters in height, but if you manage to create ideal conditions, gray spirea can easily reach up to two meters. Its crown is spreading and massive, spherical in shape, and red-brown branches are abundantly decorated with green leaves of 2-4 centimeters long.
Spirea begins to bloom from the second year, from May to June, depending on climatic conditions. The flowering period lasts one and a half months, sometimes longer. During flowering, gray spirea is especially beautiful. The massive bush densely covered with small (up to one centimeter) white flowers will not leave indifferent any person who comes to your garden to admire this beauty. By the way, spirea is also an excellent honey plant that will surely attract bees to the garden, I think it’s not worth talking about what “bonuses” you will receive if your garden is actively pollinated.
Also, gray spirea grows very quickly, cuts remarkably well and is quite dense, such qualities make this unpretentious plant also ideal for forming the so-called “green” fence, with which you can protect your garden or divide it into sections, as well as protect it from excess light and dust.
Like most massive shrubs with small leaves and plentiful flowering, spirea is a photophilous plant, but at the same time normally tolerates partial shade. It is also worth monitoring the condition of the soil and not allowing it to completely dry out; for this, it is enough to water at least a couple of times a week for this during the particularly hot months of the summer. This plant is especially sensitive to a sharp change in air temperature, but this is quite rare, and here we can not do anything.
Gray spirea tolerates winter frosts without additional help, however, with severe cold, young shoots can still freeze, cases when spirea did not survive the winter are extremely rare, and mostly happen when the plant enters the winter already sick.
A very interesting effect can be achieved if you correctly combine different varieties of spire in your garden. For example, varieties that bloom in spring, that is, red spirea, Wangutta, three-lobed, argument, nippon or oak-leaved, can be planted with varieties such as middle spirea: Douglas, Billard, blooming in summer. In such a simple way, you can actively bloom from early spring to the onset of the first frost.
It would seem that this plant already possesses all the properties in order to rightfully be called the favorite of all gardeners, but that is not all. One of the advantages is the fact that it is very easy to breed a spirea on a site, this does not require a lot of time or any special knowledge. Spirea seedlings can be planted either in the fall, when all the leaves have fallen, or in the spring, before the buds open. But it is preferable to plant it all the same in the fall, otherwise the plant can survive severe stress if it blooms immediately after planting. Propagation by cuttings is the easiest and most convenient, and sometimes even the only way, with the help of which you can easily breed spirea in your area. To do this, the cuttings are planted in a separate container or immediately in the ground (in this case, the distance between the bushes should be at least 35 centimeters, also do not forget to dilute heavy soils with sand, this guarantees you better germination of plants).
As a result, we can say that gray spirea is exactly the plant that, with a minimum of care, can provide an excellent appearance to your garden, and if you make enough effort, you can really create a real masterpiece.