Spirea Goldmound: A beautiful shrub with characteristically golden-colored leaves for your garden

Gold Mound spirea is a deciduous shrub that is prized for its bright golden leaves in spring, which turn a brilliant yellow in autumn. Other shrubs may give you better flowers or more striking fall foliage, but this one excels in spring foliage.

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Easily grown in average, medium moisture, well-drained soils in full sun. Tolerates light shade. Tolerates a wide range of soils. Prefers rich, moist loams. Remove faded flower clusters as practicable (light shearing is an option) to encourage additional bloom. Flowers on new wood, so prune in late winter to early spring if needed. Plants can be aggressive self-seeders, and have escaped gardens and naturalized in many areas of the eastern U.S. Plants will also spread in the garden by suckering.

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How to Grow Gold Mound Spirea

Gold Mound spirea’s foliage is best at two times of the year: spring and fall. In April, you will marvel at the bright golden color of the new leaves. Later, the color changes to chartreuse, which is less exciting. But then the shrub makes a comeback with its fall foliage in October, which is yellow-tinged with red. Its clusters of tiny pink flowers (called corymbs) appear in late spring, and the plant can flower again if you deadhead the first blooms.

Light

Gold Mound spirea prefers full sun, when possible, but will tolerate light shade. Planting it in a sunny location helps to ensure the best color.

This plant will grow best in well-drained soil, although it tolerates clay soils better than some other shrubs. Amend the soil with compost as needed. Mulch for winter protection if you wish to grow them in zones 4 or 5, just to be on the safe side. The plant is hardy to -30 F.

Water

Every week during the summer be sure to thoroughly water this shrub (unless it rains steadily for several days, then you can skip a week). Water until the roots are saturated, but don’t overwater; Gold Mound spirea don’t like overly wet conditions.

These hardy plants should be fertilized in late winter or early spring before new growth has had a chance to start. General-purpose garden fertilizer is fine. Be sure to water thoroughly after applying fertilizer.

Pruning

Deadhead Gold Mound spirea bushes after they’re done blooming. This will foster some reblooming as the growing season progresses. The easiest way to deadhead in this case is by shearing.1 In addition to accomplishing the removal of spent flowers, shearing will help you keep the shrub compact and generate new leaves (the newest leaves being the most colorful ones on this plant).

Pruning full branches are usually necessary only to get rid of suckers (if so desired) or to rejuvenate an old bush. You can also prune branches to keep the bush extra-compact if you are landscaping in a small space. Not all bushes respond well to the drastic operation of rejuvenation pruning, but spirea is one that does. If you do decide to prune, you can do so in late winter to early spring without fear of losing your spring flowers, since this plant blooms on new wood.