Beautiful shrubs - decoration for personal plots, gardens and parks. Great popularity was gained among gardeners and designers of spirea.
These shrubs have a decorative crown shape, often weeping or drooping, sometimes upright. The variety of spireas is striking: there are more than 90 species alone, and hardly anyone counted the varieties at all. The abundance of forms and shades of leaves, the different shape and size of the inflorescences, the different flowering periods, and the color of the flowers, from white to bright raspberry, are amazing. If you set a goal, you can pick up spirea so that they will bloom from early spring to late fall. And if we add to this that most sprays are unpretentious and frost-resistant, then their popularity becomes understandable.
Among gardeners, the division of spires into early flowering and late flowering is customary. One of the most popular early flowering species is Nippon spirea. Photos confirm that this is a very beautiful shrub. It pleases the eye with drooping long branches, in the springtime completely covered with flowers. The leaves are oval, whole-edge, along the edge of which are deep teeth. The color of the leaves of this species of spirai is special: green above, slightly bluish below.
Blooms nippon spirea (Spiraea nipponica) abundantly. Its branches are literally strewn with inflorescences.
Small flowers have white petals and a yellow center. They are assembled in semicircular guards of 15 pieces (approximately). The duration of flowering is 15 - 25 days.
Nippon Spirea: Reproduction
Like all representatives of spirai, this species is not particularly whimsical. It prefers well-lit areas, but it also develops well in partial shade. Nippon spirea propagated by cuttings, dividing the bush or seeds. Growing from seeds is the most painstaking way. They are sown in early spring in boxes with fertile soil, 2-3 months after emergence of young shoots dive into beds (along with pinching the main root). Young spirea bloom 3-4 years after sowing.
In order to preserve all the characteristics of the variety, propagate with spirea cuttings. From semi-lignified shoots of the current year, cuttings of about 10 centimeters long are cut and planted in the soil. For better root formation, you can dip them in a special solution. If you plant cuttings in early summer, then by the fall a fairly good root system is formed, and most plants successfully winter.
Well propagated nippon spirea and layering. To do this, in the spring, branches growing along the periphery are bent down, fix them and sprinkle with earth. If the whole summer abundantly water the plant and remove flowers on young spirea, then by the autumn or spring the young bushes will already be quite large.
Nippon Spirea: Planting and Care
It is better to plant a plant of this species in the spring. Spirea prefer light soils where they feel good. After rooting, fertilizing with complex mineral fertilizers three times per season is necessary.
This is a very unpretentious plant. All care consists in sanitary pruning: you need to remove damaged and dried branches. In the spring after flowering, you need to remove old branches that are more than 5 years old. When pruning, do not shorten the shoots: this will cause increased growth of the side branches, which will change the shape of the crown. Just remove old or damaged branches.