Good bye Spirea ‘Goldmound’ or maybe it’s ‘Goldflame’ … who knows. I just don’t like them very much and find the pink blooms on chartreuse foliage to be a bit garish if you will.
Actually, the foliage on this shrub looks good when it first emerges:
A nice contrast to dark foliage too.
But then as the weather warms up, the color starts to fade:
The coneflowers are ‘Sunrise’ and I’m anxious to see how they perform in their new locale:
Eventually, they will be backed by a flock of Karl Foerster ornamental grasses:
And in a few years, will be next to a Baptisia hopefully making for a nice yellow/purple color combo (see the small plug to the left of the coneflowers):
And they will all be backed my this monster of a Ninebark ‘Summer Wine’:
Speaking of which, as you can see, this Ninebark threatens to destroy everything in its path as it has grown out of control and has moved way beyond its so called “maximum size”.
So on a whim, I chopped her back hoping to keep her in bounds a bit more this year:
Yes, I am sacrificing a ton of blooms as a result of the pruning, but truthfully I enjoy the foliage on this shrub way more than I do the mid spring blooms:
So what do you think? Am I going in the right direction? Are you angry at me for disposing of the spirea? Will the Baptisia take over and make this all a moot point?
Please, do tell.
John
I don’t grow any of these plants, so I’m only judging by the photos, but I think the coneflowers and grass will look wonderful in front of your nine bark, although you may miss that spectacular early foliage colour from the spiraeas. (I agree that the yellow and pink together are garish when they’re in flower.)I think pulling out old plants that don’t quite satisfy and replacing them with a new experimental scheme is the most fun part of gardening.
i know nothing about this type of gardening but i think it will look nice and you’ll enjoy the change. i love my echinacea and those coneflowers look just as pretty. did you replant the spirea somewhere else?
I say if you aren’t happy with something, change it! Of course, it’s better to find someone to give the unwanted plants to…rather than just discarding them 😉 I love Baptisia…they do take quite a while to get up to size, though. Which variety did you get?
Oh, no, I have a baby ninebark, ONG! I think I may be in trouble! Thanks for sharing. xo
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Hmmm, I had a comment going and it disappeared…excuse me if it appears twice.
I like spirea but I understand that we all like different things. In our new neighborhood here in Texas, it seems that everyone has Indian Hawthorne. We dug them out immediately. My experience has been that spirea gets so much bigger than you think it will. No doubt, whatever you do will be gorgeous.
Love your posts most of the time. I noticed in the last photo a plant we refer to as “Jump Seed.” It is beautiful in the warm months, but spreads and suffocates other plants. Then, even this mild winter in Alabama killed it ! Now, what is left isn’t much, not to mention the ugly mess left. I guess it is up to me to get rid of the ugly, fertilize what is left and move on and choose more wisely next time.
I planted sunrise and sunset. Sunrise performed better than sunset. I think you will find sunrise yellow color to fade quickly and be a disappointment. A positive for sunrise is the large flower size. I dug out sunrise and sunset after two seasons of lack luster color displays.
Too bad I’m not close enough to take your Spirea cast offs. I love that garish combo. 😀
It is going to look beautiful. Love this time of year. Every year I try to grow cone flowers and the deer say “hell no” and eat them.
Happy spring!
Velva
I have to admit to not being a fan of Spirea either, so tend to think you’ve made a great choice. Those replacements are much more pleasing.
That’s a lovely Physocarpus. I grow a couple and although they are relatively small at the moment – I know I will need to keep them in check through pruning.
Well done!!
If the Ninebark grows to wild for its allocated space, perhaps you will consider placing it farther away from the house. It can be replaced with one of the varieties of wine-colored weigelas.
I’m with you. I have spirea in my garden and tend to cut it to bulk out any flower displays in gardens (the foliage only), other than that I find them a bit spindly. A change is always good in a garden and the cone flowers are gorgeous and the bees will like you more for them! Take care. Chel
New fan here! In our new to us 100 year old house, were starting from scratch…and i kinda like it that way! We have bridal wreath spirea and i think the new cultivars like goldmound are terrible… and everyone has at least one in their yard… And its the shrub of choice for business landscaping. Our bridal wreath is changing with the fall and its one of the few mature plants in our yard. The other is a wine and roses weigela that was planted in a too small area next to our porch that im determined to move next season. I wish it were a weigela florida….another im anxious to see grow back is an unknown viburnum the house flippers we purchased our home from cut down to stumps and tried to cover with varegated dogwood… Yuck!
I too removed my spirea….horrible little bushes that the rabbits ate through over the winter. The ninebark is my favorite shrub and does well when cut way back usually after flowering. I am trying to find something to replace the spirea. maybe another nine bark. i love the karl forester! keep going…