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Spirea are ugly and a big haircut for a ninebark

Monday, April 8, 2013 17:57

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I had close to 25 plants sitting in my garage this weekend from deliveries received over the past week. My initial instinct was to immediately put them all in the ground without a thought as to what made the most sense. It had been a long time coming after this nasty winter and the thought of actually planting wth an actual shovel was friggin exciting.

But I took a deep breath and carefully started to map out where they all should go.

That planning didn’t materialize very well and I ended up just staring at the ground hoping for some sort of spiritual guidance or a message delivered from the gods of garden planning.

My only thought was to walk around the yard hoping something would give me a creative boost … and then it hit me like a ton of bricks. Something I’ve been complaining about for years now was about to come to fruition.

Time to ditch these:

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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:

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A nice contrast to dark foliage too.

But then as the weather warms up, the color starts to fade:

By summer, I’ve lost all interest and vow to get rid of them.

So for one last time, here they are:

And then replaced by some new coneflowers:

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The coneflowers are ‘Sunrise’ and I’m anxious to see how they perform in their new locale:

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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:

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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 apparent maximum size.

So on a whim, I chopped her back hoping to keep her in bounds a bit more this year:

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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:

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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

2013-04-08 17:51:37

Source: http://www.obsessiveneuroticgardener.com/2013/04/spirea-are-ugly-and-big-haircut-for.html

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