Spiraea japonica Pink & Gold

Spiraea japonica 'Pink & Gold' is a variety of Japanese spiraea with changing and multicoloured foliage and lovely pink flowering in summer, blooming again in autumn. Its leaves go through a range of colours, starting from orange-red when they emerge, to golden yellow in spring, evolving to chartreuse green in summer, before turning to beautiful autumn shades of coppery red to bronze. This small, hardy bush adapts to most soils in sunny locations. It is ideal for borders or flower beds and is decorative throughout the growing season.

Japanese spiraea belongs to the Rosaceae family. This plant family includes most of our temperate climate fruit trees (apples, pears, plums, apricots, peaches, etc.), as well as many ornamental plants (Roses obviously but also Hawthorn, Cotoneaster, Photinia, Prunus) and numerous wild plants that brighten up our countryside. 'Pink & Gold' is a cultivar derived from Spiraea japonica (synonym Spiraea x bumalda or Spiraea callosa), a botanical species native to eastern and central China, as well as Japan. Japanese spiraea is a small shrub whose summer flowering adds interest.

'Pink & Gold' forms a compact shrub with a more or less spherical to bushy habit, reaching about 1.20 m (4ft) in all directions at maturity. This variety has particularly colourful foliage that keeps changing, consisting of small oblong and toothed leaves. When they first appear the young leaves have a reddish-orange tint, then turn a very bright golden yellow in spring, gradually changing to a light yellowish-green in the course of summer. In autumn, the foliage takes on beautiful shades of predominantly orange to coppery red or bronze. The flowers appear in June-July, clustered in terminal corymbs of pink colour, well highlighted by the foliage. This extended flowering, often blooming again in September, attracts numerous butterflies, bees, and bumblebees.
Japanese spiraea adapts to all climates and all types of soil but dislikes scorching or excessively dry conditions. Very hardy (down to -25 °C and below), this small shrub is among the easiest to grow and requires little maintenance.

With its bushy and compact habit, 'Pink & Gold' is ideal as a low hedge, to give structure to a perennial flower bed, or in large borders. Combine Japanese spiraea with other easy-to-grow shrubs, such as Weigela florida Victoria with its purple foliage, which creates an attractive colour contrast throughout the season, both in terms of foliage and its purple-pink flowers that appear at the same time as our little spiraea. Philadelphus Little White Love, a dwarf Mock Orange with highly scented white double flowers in early summer, will also be a fragrant companion in a low flowerbed, as will the superb Lilas Bloomerang Pink Perfume with its fragrant pink flowers in spring that bloom again in autumn. Potentilla fruticosa Red'issima, with its low height and beautiful single orange-red flowers, will work well at the forefront of these different shrubs, allowing you to create an enviable display.