Spirea Goldflame #2

Landscape designers love using the easy care Goldflame Spirea (Spiraea x bumalda 'Goldflame') in their designs as a small, tidy accent. They know their clients expect a command performance throughout the season, and they don't want muss or fuss to get it, either.

Goldflame Spirea is a reliable knockout. This dense, upright, compact, mounded deciduous shrub features color throughout the growing season.

It features a really welcome springtime show. As the small leaves emerge, they showcase shades of coppery orange, rust, and yellow. It's such a treat for the eyes to see the vivid color after the long winter season.

And once the leaves mature, they'll brighten up into a wild neon green!

Over the top of that bright green foliage display, lovely rose-pink flowers cover the arching stems in late spring to early summer. They will bloom profusely and attracts butterflies.

The flowers will rebloom for you later in the summer. All it takes is a few minutes doing a simple trimming of the spent blossoms. Snip, snip and you'll get more blooms!

The fall season brings its own ornamental display with this charming small shrub. This is when the foliage turns a flaming yellow. The fall color is truly eye-catching and adds variety at a time when many plants are losing their luster in the garden.

How to Use Goldflame Spirea in the Landscape

This is a marvelous choice for foundation plantings. Place them in front of other evergreen shrubs to brighten and polish the look. Or, you can choose to plant them by themselves for a really modern look. They'll fit perfectly under your windows and won't give you any trouble at all.

Wind a ribbon of them through the middle of your perennial border to tie everything together. Planting them in a slight curve, or gentle zig-zag is a good idea to add a bit of dynamic movement in this application.

You can easily pair them with bright, strappy Daylilies, small Arborvitae globe-shaped shrubs, and groundcover Roses. They'll contrast beautifully with taller evergreen trees, such as Columnar Blue Spruce, Blue Arrow Juniper or Eastern Red Cedar.

Place them at the feet of a climbing Rose trellis. Use them all around your mailbox for a jazzy punch of curb appeal.

The Goldflame Spirea does well in lush container gardens that work on your patio from spring to fall. Dress them up with other grasses and annuals or use several Goldflame shrubs together in a single display.

You'll love how butterflies come to visit the flowers! Goldflame is excellent as a low maintenance color spot on the deck or patio.

With fast growth and a full appearance, they also make cunning low little hedges. Plant them two feet apart along your walkways or around your patio. You'll delineate the space without feeling "hemmed in".

If you have a modern shrub border, use Goldflame to edge the bed. It will play so well with other shrubs behind it, including Lilacs, Mock Oranges and Rose of Sharon.

The changing color of this Spirea variety adds to its appeal. Your garden will benefit from it in each phase of the growing season.

The plant is quite often used for erosion control where it is mass planted to secure hillsides or besides winter creeks. Popular for city plantings, Goldflame is very tolerant of urban environments.

#ProPlantTips for Care

The Goldflame is adapted to a wide range of climates and is noted for its heat tolerance. This is a rare feature, as you don't often see light leaved plants able to tolerate high heat.

Keep your eye on your garden in periods of extreme heat. Give additional water as needed. It's also a good idea to lay a layer of mulch to 2 feet outside of the plant. This will keep the roots cool and cut down on surface evaporation.

It has no serious insect or disease problems, and Goldflame is easily grown in average, medium wet, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade. It tolerates a wide range of soils and is easy to grow.

This Spirea should be pruned in late winter to early spring. It will flower on new wood. Just remove spent flowers to see a reblooming flush later in the summer.