Cormaic's Garden - Plants

Garden Layout - Plants - Spiraea
In general, I'm not usually a fan of Spiraeas. Their avearge features and average leaf shape and average colour just doesn't appeal to me, but this is the one exception.
Spiraea japonica 'Magic Carpet' was originally bought by Mrs Taz as it was the name of her favourite computer game at that time. It is claimed to be a ground cover plant, but I grow it as a small shrub, never allowing it to get much bigger than 450mm in height or spread. The new foliage is a wonderful reddish colour which changes to a golden-green over the season and it bears pinky, typical Spiraea flowers in summer. It needs to be cut back hard each winter to promote the new reddish new growth, and is very amenable to cuttings in summer.