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New England Gardening

When do spireas break dormancy

deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b

14 years ago

I have a Little Princess Spirea I purchased l last year. I had my doubts about its health going into fall, and right now every shrub shows growth, as well as many herbacious perennials, and the spirea is brown with no leaf buds at all. Should it already be budding if it's alive?

Ironically, this is the one shrub I took great care to plant exactly per instructions. I dug a big hole, put in commerically prepared compost with the soil, and did deep soakings for a while to establish it. Of all the plants to (potentially) not make it!

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Comments (4)

carol6ma_7ari
14 years ago
My plants bud earlier than yours (location is Boston) and my 2 small spireas look almost dead except some little branches are showing a bit of green along their teensy lengths. They did this last year too. Not an early bud plant like forsythias and lilacs. Patience!

Carol
chickadeemelrose
14 years ago
Thank you Carol! I live in Melrose and I was just looking at one of my spireas today and wondering "should I dig it up or what?" Now I will have patience like you said.

Donna
deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
Original Author
14 years ago
Very good, thank you! The only internet info I could find is that 'Blue Mist' spirea breaks early with the forsythias. I'm very happy to hear yours look nice and dead, too!
deanna in ME Barely zone 6a, more like 5b
Original Author
14 years ago
Success!! Leaf buds spotted this morning on my spirea. It's either alive or it's a zombie spirea. Boy, that plant should be called "HA-tricked you!" Plant. It looks deader than a doornail before it buds back to life. Really fooled me!

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