it would help if we had a cultivar name.. maybe others can chime in ...

but here is how i look for future potential ... jsut scroll down until you see older plants .... change the term if you get a full name

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=Spirea&iax=images&ia=images

i believe some peeps prune them down once a year... if you like repetitive labor ... i dont.. lol ...

i moved a couple in august for a deck build.. literally dragged the root balls across the yard on the ground with the riding lawnmower and chain ... i did predig them ...and threw them in a predug hole... 15 years ago.. they are still out there. .. lol ...

put them somewhere where they fill a void.. with plenty of space to grow to their potential... and you can ignore them.. if you wish ...

if you want suggestions on replacements.. a pic of the whole front of the house would be better ...

but you mention evergreen.. are these evergreen for you in IL?? .. or changing course a bit??

ken

Thanks Ken, I have a perfect spot for them where I can just let them be. These are not evergreen for me now, but I’d like to replace them with something that is. I just don’t like looking at the side of the concrete steps and landing. These actually do a decent job of hiding it, but like I said they’ve come back with a vengeance and are too big for this space - good problem to have, I know.

Hard to tell from your picture just how big these spirea are, but they look on the small side to me, so I'm not sure just how much more compact of a shrub you'd like. Off the top of my head I'd say maybe some small boxwood (although some folks have issues with boxwood blight). I'm also thinking there are some small hollies that get around two feet tall, maybe three feet - might be Gembox holly I'm thinking of. There's also a Tater Tot something... hold on, I'll google, lol.... okay Tater Tot arborvitae, two feet tall.

That being said, I never really trust "mature size" descriptions lol.

Good luck!

:)

Dee

Those are Anthony Waterer spirea. Yes, you cut them down every year in late winter/early spring. You could move them and not cut them, but then you'll end up with large shrubs with a lot of dead branches inside. That is the nature of those spirea.

Gracie that’s exactly what I had, not much going on in the middle. I think I will start cutting them back every March since they responded so well