Cutting Back Magic Carpet Spirea

A slow release fertilizer is best.

Cutting back magic carpet spirea.

Start at the tips of your spirea when pruning by trimming it back to the leaf bud on the top. Propagate by softwood cuttings in summer or by division in autumn or spring. Spirea that s not pruned or pruned to the ground each spring has a casual loose habit. You can use pruning shears and cut one at a time or hedge clippers and simply cut them all off at once it makes no difference.

Fall is the time for the most severe pruning of spirea. Maintain the good shape as you cut sections of the shrub be. If overgrown can be renovated by cutting back hard immediately after flowering. After pruning give the plant a water fertilize it and renew the mulch.

Magic carpet spirea does not require pruning after its blooming period but pruning at that time helps maintain a neat appearance in the vigorous grower. Remove any dead branches and use this trimming to shape the shrub. Flowers on new wood so prune in late winter to early spring if needed. More drastically cutting back spirea should occur in the fall or in late winter to early spring.

To deadhead your magic carpet variety wait until the blooms begin to die back in. Other common names japanese spirea magic carpet synonyms spiraea walbuma family rosaceae genus spiraea are deciduous shrubs sometimes suckering with simple leaves and short racemes panicles or corymbs of small 5 petalled white or pink flowers in spring or summer. In early spring before the leaf buds start to swell cut all of the stems down so they re 4 to 6 in. With sharp shears cut each stem back to about 8 inches 20 cm from the ground.

Try to make the cuts within inch 6 mm of a leaf or bud. Spirea shrubs also require deadheading throughout the spring or summer to ensure a continuous show of blooms. Cut back as much as one third of each stem s length if the plant appears unkempt or overgrown. Start hardwood cuttings from a mature spirea when the plant is dormant in late winter or early spring.

A hardwood cutting is a young branch that does not bend and has no active growth. After the last blooms expire shear off the tips of the stems just below the spent flowers. Throughout the summer the plants shape can be maintained by cutting back overgrown spirea shoots or stems as well as any dead or diseased branches. Cutting it way back will stimulate new growth in tighter clusters so that you can get a more rounded compact shrub shape.