Eddie Seagle is a Sustainability Verifier, Golf Environment Organization (Scotland), Agronomist and Horticulturalist, CSI: Seagle (Consulting Services International) LLC, Professor Emeritus and Honorary Alumnus (Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College), Distinguished Professor for Teaching and Learning (University System of Georgia) and Short Term Missionary (Heritage Church, Moultrie). Direct inquiries to csi_seagle@yahoo.com.

“In the entire circle of the year there are no days so delightful as those of a fine October.” Alexander Smith. “It must be October, the trees are falling away and showing their true colors.” Charmaine J. Forde. “October is crisp days and cool nights, a time to curl up around the dancing flames and sink into a good book.” John Sinor. “October is a symphony of permanence and change.” Bonaro W. Overstreet. “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” F. Scott Fitzgerald. “Autumn shows us how beautiful it is to let things go.” Unknown. “Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn.” Elizabeth Lawrence. “I wish that every day was Saturday and every month was October.” Charmaine J. Forde.

A plant to think about planting for the coming year is spirea and there is so much to celebrate about spirea. The genus name, Spirea, originates from the Greek word, speira, or “wreath” in reference to the orientation of the shrub’s delicate flowers. With nearly 100 unique species, this hardy group of plants boasts a wide range of colorful foliage ranging from blue to yellow, red, to orange, and everything in between. It’s the little black dress of the garden: a perfect, adaptable, easy statement-maker that looks great in all settings.

Spirea is a showoff—in the best possible sense. Depending on the variety you select, blooms begin in the spring or late summer—and keep going with deadheading. This is not a one-and-done flowering shrub. Instead, you’ll enjoy beautiful flowers throughout the growing season. And once they’re finished flowering, the fabulous foliage adds color and interest to the garden. Some newer cultivars, like Double Play® Doozie®, don’t set seed, which means no deadheading is needed for ongoing blooms. Instead, just plant it and enjoy a long show in the garden.

But spirea makes your garden look lovely even before and after flowering. Many varieties sport extremely attractive foliage, with colors changing from spring to summer to fall. Birchleaf spirea Glow Girl®, for instance, produces bright, chartreuse foliage in spring, which turns a bit darker in the summer, but then wows the garden with yellows, oranges, and reds in the fall. With a combination of beautiful blooms and fabulous foliage, spirea makes your garden look gorgeous throughout the growing season.

Spirea is like your favorite dinner guest: easy, relaxed, and entertaining. There’s no high-maintenance, special diet involved, it plays nicely with other plants, and as long as it gets some sun, it will delight you all season long. A sunny space produces a great performance from spirea, but the shrub does tolerate part-shade, too—just expect fewer blooms. If you’re worried that your pH is off, the soil is poor, or your urban environment generates too much pollution for spirea to thrive, relax: this is one highly-adaptable shrub.

Not only does spirea create a gorgeous glow in the garden, its beautiful blooms provide a feast for pollinators—and a fantastic show for you. Hummingbirds, butterflies, honeybees, bumble bees, halictid bees, masked bees, andrenid bees, wasps, ants, syrphid flies, long-horned beetles, and ctenucha virginica moths all love the clusters of spirea blooms. Plant spirea near a porch or patio to watch the pollinators play, or add a shrub near your vegetable garden to lure pollinators that help boost harvests. It adds a pretty pop of color near veggie beds, too.

If you’re looking to create a lush, established garden quickly, spirea is the shrub for you. Whether you need a foundation planting, a privacy hedge, or a pretty border along a path, spirea grows fast, filling sunny garden spaces with beautiful blooms and fab foliage.

But keep in mind that spirea is a deciduous shrub—meaning that although you’ll enjoy three seasons of beauty, those pretty leaves will drop, leaving bare branches in the winter. You may want to create a foundation planting using a mix of spirea along with evergreen shrubs for a rich, layered look.

Foliage color depends on the variety: some cultivars, like Double Play® Candy Corn®, unfurl bright red foliage in the spring, which morphs into yellow followed by orange leaves in the fall. Double Play® Blue Kazoo® starts out with blue foliage that turns red in fall. And Double Play® Dolly® begins with orange/red foliage that transitions to chartreuse yellow. Birchleaf spirea is known for its bright chartreuse foliage that turns yellow, orange, and red, while Japanese spirea boasts the biggest range of both flower and foliage colors, depending on cultivars. Even without a single bloom, spirea makes an excellent statement in the garden.

There’s a reason spirea is favored by many landscapers: this highly versatile shrub looks great and grows well just about anywhere. While many gardeners think of the large, arching branches of bridal wreath spirea—which needs plenty of room to grow—there’s a spirea variety ideal for any space. Whether you garden in a large, multi-acre landscape or fill containers for a sunny balcony or patio garden, you’ll find a wide variety of spirea perfect for any size space.

If you’re looking for a big, statement-making shrub, bridal wreath reaches 7 to 10 feet tall, creating a dramatic focal point. With a similar arching habit, ‘Snowmound’ (S. nipponica) offers a slightly smaller shrub, reaching 4 to 7 feet tall. For foundation plantings or shorter hedges, look for cultivars that grow about 3 to 4 feet tall, like Pink Sparkler™ Birchleaf, andGoldflame. For borders, mixed plantings, and containers, try compact varieties, such as Little Princess, which grows only 2 feet tall, or Little Spark®, which reaches only 18-24 inches tall.

Both deer and rabbits tend to avoid nibbling on spirea, so if your garden backs up to a forested area, or if wildlife have found their way into your suburban or urban backyard, spirea makes a great addition to your landscape. But remember: if a deer is hungry enough, no plant stands a chance.

This fact sheet is provided as an educational service of the National Garden Bureau (www.ngb.org/year-of-the-spirea). Have a blessed week and continue to enjoy October!

“But let all who take refuge in You [O God] be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread Your protection over them, that those who love Your name may rejoice in You.” Psalm 5:11. “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:11. “If you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against His commands, His hand will be against you, as it was against your fathers.” 1 Samuel 12:15. “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” Romans 5:1-2.

Seagle is a Sustainability Verifier, Golf Environment Organization (Scotland), Agronomist and Horticulturalist, CSI: Seagle (Consulting Services International) LLC, Professor Emeritus and Honorary Alumnus (Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College), Distinguished Professor for Teaching and Learning (University System of Georgia) and Short Term Missionary (Heritage Church, Moultrie). Direct inquiries to csi_seagle @yahoo.com.