The second name of the birch leaf spirea is the meadowsweet. The culture is unpretentious in care, adapts to various conditions of detention. However, she needs a setting that she is used to while in nature.
Description of birch leaf spirea
Spiraea betulifolia is an ornamental shrub with a height and diameter of a crown of 50-100 cm. The name of the culture was given for leaflets with notches similar to birch ones. In the summer they are green, in the fall they turn yellow-gold or red.
Birch leaf spirea
The buds begin to bloom in early June, flowering bushes lasts about a month. Petals are painted white. The buds are collected in corymbose inflorescences with a diameter of about 9 cm.
Additional Information. The culture blooms 3-4 years after planting.
The most famous varieties of birch leaf spirea:
- Spirea Thor. Bushes of the culture are spreading. The flowers are painted with a creamy palette. The leaves are green in summer, with the onset of autumn they turn yellow. Inflorescences of Spiraea betulifolia Tor begin to bloom in late June.
- Thor Gold. It is a shrub 60-100 cm high. Thor Gold spirea attracts attention with its yellow-green leaves in the summer, crimson in the fall.
- Pink sparkler. This is the only birch leaf spirea, the inflorescences of which are painted pink.
Meadowsweet can be planted singly, or combine several varieties in a mixborder. Get a mix of flowers and leaves of various colors.
Spirea Berezolisty Pink Sparkler
Planting a plant
At the site of spirea, they are planted in spring or autumn. The plot is selected sunny. This is one of the few crops that prefer acidic soil.
Seed planting
Seed material is stratified, disinfected before planting. Prepared seeds are planted in the greenhouse in spring. When they germinate, they are thinned out. Young bushes are planted on the site the next year.
Note! Seeds need to be purchased high quality, since their germination is only 65%.
Planting seedlings in open ground
The grown plants are planted on the site as follows:
- Dig a hole 60 cm wide and depth.
- A drainage layer consisting of small stones or broken bricks is placed at the bottom.
- A substrate consisting of garden soil, peat, humus and sand is poured there.
- Spirea is planted so that the root neck is not deepened.
- The seedling is abundantly watered.
- To preserve moisture, the root circle is mulched.
Bushes grown in closed ground take root faster and easier
How to care
Care of the crop consists in watering, fertilizing, loosening the soil, pruning.
Watering
In dry, hot weather, the bushes are irrigated 1-2 times in 10-15 days. For this, 1.5-2 buckets of water are poured under each plant. After watering, loosen the soil. The procedure is carried out carefully, trying not to damage the root system. If the trunk circle is covered with mulch, loosening is not carried out.
Important! If there is a lot of rainfall during the spring-summer season, additional watering can be omitted. Abundantly irrigate bushes before wintering.
Top dressing
In the spring, after warming the soil, the birch leaf spire is fed with organic: a solution of bird droppings or mullein. Before flowering, a potassium-phosphorus component is added. In the autumn, peat or humus is added to the root circle.
Pruning
In the spring, sanitary pruning of birch leaf spirea is carried out: dry, frozen and diseased branches are removed. The procedure is performed with disinfected secateurs. Young branches shorten. Shoots older than 6 years are completely cut off.
Note! Beginning to dry the buds must be removed so that the bushes retain their decorative effect, and do not spend energy on the formation of fruits.
Breeding methods
Culture is bred in several ways: seeds, cuttings, dividing the bush and layering. Gardeners rarely use the first method. It is laborious, it takes a long time to wait for the growing of bushes.
For propagation by cuttings, apical shoots with 4-6 buds are cut. For 10-12 hours they are placed in a solution of Epin. Then the cuttings are planted in a container with nutrient soil. When the bushes grow, they are transplanted into the open ground.
Propagation of spirea by cuttings
Overgrown spirea can be divided. For this, the bush is dug up, cut into several parts. The root system is sprinkled with wood ash. Each dividend is planted in a separate hole.
For propagation by layering, outdoor shoots are selected. They are bent to a groove previously dug in the ground, fastened with brackets. Then watered, fall asleep with earth. The resulting young bushes are separated from the mother plant, planted in a new place.
Transfer
It is best to move spirea from one place to another in spring or autumn. If the bushes are sold in a container, the procedure can be performed in the summer. So that all the forces of the plant are spent on rooting, the crown is cut. Transplanted bushes are abundantly watered, the trunk circle is mulched.
Important! The root neck when planting bushes should not go deep.
Diseases and Pests
Berezol spiraea has good immunity, it is rarely exposed to diseases and pest attacks. However, with errors in care, it becomes an excellent target for pathogenic microorganisms. If diseases are detected, the affected parts of the plant are cut off, the bushes are sprayed with fungicidal preparations.
Spiraea can be attacked by a spider mite, leaf aphid, and whitefly. Pests suck out the juices, and the plant soon dies. To cope with insects, spiraea is sprayed with a solution of any insecticide.
Flowering period
Buds of birch leaf spirea begin to bloom in June. Flowering lasts 4-6 weeks. The thyroid inflorescences of the culture, depending on the variety, are painted in white, cream or pink.
Flowering bushes Thor Gold
Winter preparations
Spirea tolerates winter cold well, so she does not need shelter. It is enough in the middle of autumn to make water-charging (winter) watering, to mulch the root circle with peat or humus. This will increase the winter hardiness of the bushes.
Important! If large rodents are found in the region, a special net is placed around the bushes.
Use in landscape design
Spirea is used for landscaping parks, squares, house adjoining territories. The bushes look beautiful both in the form of solitary plants and in group plantings. You can plant several varieties of culture in a mixborder, for example, Thor birch spirea, Island bushes and spiraea betulifolia Gold.
Meadowsweet effectively combined with conifers and shrubs. It is planted next to beautifully flowering plants: lilac, hydrangea, roses. Low-growing varieties of spirea can be used as a border.
Birch leaf spirea in the landscape
Birch leaf spirea has a decorative look from spring to late autumn. In summer, it is valued for lush flowering, in the fall - for golden leaves. It’s easy to grow a culture, any gardener can handle this process.
