The overwhelming trend this week centered on the Goldmound Spirea. Most of you I have spoken with had many questions in regards to this plant. Homeowners who have these shrubs feel they need to replace them, as they have grown too large for the landscape. When you bought this plant you were attracted to the glowing aura of the yellow leaves with soft pink hues & the fiery red tips. Once you were told it was drought tolerant, salt tolerant and it bloomed gorgeously in June, you were sold! It fit perfectly, with its two like companions, at your front walkway. When you first installed it you grinned from ear to ear – what a perfect plant – your friends and family commented on it as well.
How do you feel about it now? Is it gobbling up your front walk like a ravenous wolf? Has it become the planting that wants to reach out and touch your guests as they walk past? Have you fallen out of love? Remember, there was a reason you loved it when you met it. You can rekindle your love – we have just the materials needed to get that fire burning again.
Goldmound Spirea is such a tenacious plant and it has much to offer to the landscape. If you are lucky enough to own one or more of these multi-faceted shrubs then you know they take very well to trimming. Next you’ll tell me you have trimmed and trimmed and have yet been able to keep this shrub in line – right?
Did you know if your Goldmound Spirea has outgrown the space, you do not have to tear it out; you could just whack it down like you would a mosquito at a little league game? Seriously, if you do not mind looking at sticks in the ground once it is finished blooming cut it back as hard as you would like. Though, if you do not want to look at an unsightly shrub throughout the rest of the season you may want to do what many I have met are already doing, cut them back to the ground in the fall. Just like your ornamental grasses, in the spring you will start to see the shrub you fell in love with. You were going to tear it out otherwise, correct? Then what do you have to lose?
Upon a recent conversation with a great tree industry fellow, he mentioned a tear out they had completed a few weeks ago. There were many sickly trees entangled in vine. Unbeknownst to them, poison ivy was lurking within the other non-threatening vine. I was told the consequences of the contact between arborists and the vines was a trip to the hospital which without could have been life threatening. Poison Ivy begins with the word –poison – for a reason. I guess it may be confusing to some as it is not required just yet to show a skull with cross bones on it to denote – poison – I repeat this as I have been told for the second time within two weeks that they were told to eat the stuff – PLEASE – If you are one of the 2% of the population that is immune to Poison Ivy and can eat it merrily amongst friends as a form of entertainment – for the sake of your friends, your family, your loved ones – DO NOT PROMOTE THE EATING OF POSIN IVY – Poison Ivy can and has killed before – do not take it lightly.
Almost forgot, has your burning bush, Euonymus compactus, overgrown its space? Much like the Spirea, you can cut it back to a stump in the fall and if it is a hardy enough it will become your friend again in the spring – basically once the leaves fall off of the trees you can cut the Burning bush back as far as you want to. They will flush back out in the spring and you may want to keep an eye on them. Feed them if the growth is not strong and make sure to water if it is dry, this all being said with the impression you are about to pull them out because the situation seemed hopeless.
This week it is time to treat your Dogwoods and large leaf Rhododendron with Captain Jacks Dead Bug Brew. Speaking of brew, stop into Tom Dayton’s, Dayton Nurseries, and check out his plant brew, brewed by Tom Dayton himself, a special mix of fertilizer for your plants to imbibe. This is a B.Y.O.J. affair. You bring a clean jug and he will supply the brew.
Can you believe this weather? Your plants might need a good kick especially in the garden after going through this crazy, even for Northeast Ohio weather. We are all thrown on this one, as records indicate we have not experienced this type of weather pattern since 1925. Those of you lucky enough to get the warning in time were able to save some of your tender plantings. I met many of you who weren’t so lucky. So many stories, so many plants, as someone must have said sometime somewhere…. The garden must go on!
