Propagating spirea by seeds is easy and convenient: from sowing you get many plants at once, which usually bloom in the third year. You can get several hundred plants from one bush - for example, to create a hedge.
Already at the end of May, you can choose a beautifully blooming spirea for future sowing. Seeds can be collected in a city park or asked from friends, and sowed in the fall or spring, when there is time. Seeds are easier to store than cuttings.
When to sow spirea
Spiraea sprouts without stratification. It can be sown both in spring and autumn without preliminary seed preparation. Experts recommend sowing in spring, but the benefit of spring sowing is noticeable only with large production volumes: less seed consumption, more rational use of nursery areas.
For a personal garden, the period of seed propagation does not matter. It is even more convenient to sow spirea in the fall of the year of collection, so as not to forget about it in the midst of spring work and so that the seedlings fully use the snow moisture in the spring. Then they will suffer less from irregular watering.
Technology of propagation of spirea by seeds
It is better to collect seeds at the end of summer (for spring-flowering spirea - in the middle of summer), when the capsules have turned brown, but have not yet opened. Later, the seeds begin to spill out, although a small number of seeds can be collected even from fruits that have long opened.
Cut off the fruits with seeds and place them in an open box to ripen. After 2 weeks, collect the spilled seeds and store until sowing in October-November or in April.
Prepare the soil for sowing: mix non-acidic peat and vermiculite (4:1). Sow the seeds in a bowl or box. A sheet of light, smooth paper will help distribute them more evenly over the soil surface (the seeds are clearly visible on such paper and slide off easily).
When sowing in spring, moisten the soil with a sprayer and cover with film, in autumn you can do without it.
Dig in a container with crops on the bed. When sowing in spring, you can simply place it in the shade so that the soil does not overheat and does not dry out - but not near the north side of the fence and building, where an icy wind blows in the spring. As soon as the first shoots appear on the soil surface, the film should be removed.
When the spirea shoots reach about 2 cm in height, their color begins to appear (if the seeds are from a variety with yellow leaves). At this time, they urgently need to be picked, sorting the seedlings by color. Do not postpone the procedure: green seedlings overtake in growth and are already beginning to "strangle" their less nimble yellow-leaved brothers.
Select spirea seedlings from a bowl or box in bunches of several pieces. Sort, if necessary, by color. Pinch the long roots of each seedling by 1/3 and plant them in a box at a distance of 5-6 cm from each other.
Keep the box with crops in a shady place (preferably in the shade of deciduous trees), do not forget to water regularly. Closer to autumn, the plants can be transplanted to a bed, and next season - to permanent places.
Spiraea is one of the few shrubs that tolerates transplantation well at any time convenient for you. The main thing is that by the time of transplantation to a permanent place, the plants have reached such a size that they can be clearly seen. Then you will not accidentally pull them out with weeds and trample them.
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