any chance at some pix???

i consider these as near impossible to kill .... or to die ... unless there is some plague i am not aware of ..

i have literally cut them to a few inches due to a project .. and with no insult to the root mass ... they were back with a vengeance within a year ...

i would like to look at yours ....

sometimes a mild winter is worse than a cold snowy winter ...

i dont know what to say about the parents plants ...

ken

ps: now i'll go look out the window and find mine are dead.. lol ...

in hindsight.. i wonder what kind of spirea you have ...

Here is what some of the ones that are still alive look like this year:

Last year I cut out the dead and left the living stems growing hoping that it would fill back in, but the new growth at the base stayed about as tall as it is now. Perhaps I should have just cut them all the way down. Some of that is also deceiving as there is some periwinkle ground cover growing around the bases of the shrubs.

This is generally what I am seeing around the area, where only 1/4 to 1/2 of the plant is still alive.

These type grow deeper pink clusters of flowers. There's a fourth in the back right with lighter leaves and lighter flowers that also doesn't look so well, but it has more leaves.

How much rain did you get during the mild winter?

Mine all did fine but I had plenty or rain during the very mild winter. I don't even think my Goldmounds even went into a real dormancy- they just perked right along.

I don't think I am really midwest, though.

I have Wedding Cake, Shirobana, Candy Corn, and of course Goldmound.

You can try cutting them back. The Halloween cold plus the cool spring may just be slowing them down.

I've had spirea of different varieties for years. T hey all receive some winter damage around our area. Cut them back in early spring to all one height and they should fill in nicely. Assuming there isn't something else going on, such as black plastic in the bed or something.