Japanese Spirea
Spiraea japonica
Planted for flat clusters of pink flowers in late spring and summer on a fast, easy, mounded shrub. But it's invasive: it self-seeds and suckers into wiry thickets that crowd out other plants, and Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and the NC Invasive Plant Council all list it. Choose a native shrub instead.
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- Mature size
- 5 × 5.5 ft
- 1.5 × 1.7 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 4a–8b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part sun
- Water
- Medium
- Blooms
- May–Jul
Japanese Spirea at its mature size
A mature Japanese Spirea grows 4 to 6 feet tall and 4 to 7 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.
Through the year
What Japanese Spirea looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Dormant · Dec–Mar
Bare fine brown twigs with dried flower heads.
In leaf · Apr–May, Aug–Sep
Fine-textured mound of small dark green toothed leaves.
In flower · Jun–Jul
Flat-topped clusters of pink flowers covering the mound.
Fall · Oct–Nov
Mix of muted yellow, orange and reddish-purple.
Photos
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Growing Japanese Spirea
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Plains and Mountain West, and the Pacific Northwest.
- Growth rate
- Fast
- Good for
- Foundation planting 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
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Japanese Spirea, that’s about 5.5 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 Japanese 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.