Goldmound Spirea
Spiraea japonica ‘Goldmound’ · a low gold-leaf spirea
A tidy, compact mound of golden leaves that fade to gold-green in summer and turn yellow, orange and red in fall, with small pink flowers in late spring that butterflies visit, a bright contrast in borders and low hedges. Deer leave it alone. Like all Japanese spirea, it can self-seed and sucker into a weedy patch.
- Mature size
- 3 × 3.5 ft
- 0.9 × 1.1 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 3a–8b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade
- Water
- Medium to moist
- Blooms
- Jun–Jul
- Fall color Oct–Nov
Goldmound Spirea at its mature size
A mature Goldmound Spirea grows 2 to 3.5 feet tall and 2 to 4 feet wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension, Missouri Botanical Garden.
Through the year
What Goldmound Spirea looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Dormant · Dec–Mar
Bare fine brown twigs.
In leaf · Apr–May, Aug–Sep
Compact mound of small golden-yellow leaves fading to gold-green.
In flower · Jun–Jul
Small flat pink flower clusters over golden leaves.
Fall · Oct–Nov
Leaves turned yellow, orange and red.
Growing Goldmound Spirea
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Plains and Mountain West, and the Pacific Northwest.
- Growth rate
- Fast
- Good for
- Hedge, small space, foundation planting, specimen, deer resistant, fall color, and fast growing
- Leaves
- Drops its leaves in winter
- Native to
- Japan, China, and Korea
- State lists
Listed as invasive in Pennsylvania. DCNR Invasive Plant List
Listed as invasive in Virginia. Virginia Invasive Plant Species List
Spacing for a hedge
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Goldmound Spirea, that’s about 3.5 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Goldmound Spirea in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other spireas
Goldmound Spirea
Goldflame Spirea
Japanese SpireaAll drawn to the same scale.