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  • Amateur Gardening

    Showy spiraeas

    Mar 29, 2022 5 minutes

    SOME plants are easy-going, adapt readily to most garden situations and give their owners so little heartache they might be taken for granted. This could apply to spiraeas, yet these deciduous shrubs have a lot to give. Members of the rose and hawthorn family, there are around 80 species and numerous cultivars, mainly of Spiraea japonica.

    Few gardens of the 1980s were without Spiraea japonica ‘Goldflame,’ a low-growing shrub introduced about 50 years ago. Its leaves emerge salmon pink, change to bright yellow-green and are joined by pink blooms during summer. This is still a good choice, but plants sometimes revert to plain green and there are plenty of excellent and equally chameleon-like newer cultivars.

    Taller spiraeas

    Their yellow, gold and even plum-coloured leaves are perfect for containers, ground cover and low hedges. Other taller

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