Spiraea plants
Spiraea is a popular group of hardy, fast-growing deciduous shrubs with a well-deserved reputation for being easy to grow and producing an abundance of beautiful, showy flowers in spring or summer. Spring flowering Spiraea varieties such as Spiraea Arguta and Spiraea Snowmound produce tiny, white flowers massed together in clusters on arching stems. The summer-flowering types including Spiraea Gold Mound and Spiraea Firelight are usually pink or red with small blooms appearing in upright spikes, flat heads or rounded domes. Spiraea have simple, lance-shaped leaves arranged alternatively along the stems, typically with fine-textured, toothed margins. They are versatile group, spanning varieties that work well as standalone specimens in the mixed border, mass plantings, groundcover, informal flowering hedges and foundation plants for perennial gardens, including a number of RHS award of garden merit winners. Named from the Greek word speira, which means spiral, it refers to their wreath-like display of showy, small flowers. Prune annually after flowering to maintain their attractive shape and growth habit, trimming back younger stems to the required size and removing any old overcrowded shoots from the base.