Minnesota Landscape Association - Useful Information

August 2002
Plant of the Month
Spirea 'Fujino'
(Spirea 'Fujino')
shrub
zone: 4
by Bill Boyle

This is a plant which is a fairly new introduction from Japan. I was introduced to this plant two years ago when a truck we were unloading at the nursery had 20 of these on board which we had not ordered. The driver wanted to get them off his truck so he told us to keep them. Having never
heard of the plant before, I took one home and planted it in my yard.

It turned out to be a nice addition to my landscape. It is a plant similar to Snowmound Spirea but with medium pink flowers. It is now about 2 feet tall, and doesn't appear to be wanting to get much larger. It has small medium green leaves. It flowers very early in the spring and is one of the first signs of life that shows up. The stems are lined top to bottom with pink, snowmound type flowers. If there is a drawback to what I've seen it would be that it flowers early and doesn't have much of an effect the rest of the summer, but, if used in the right combination, it gives a nice early spring show.

There doesn't seem to be any problem with hardiness and I have only seen a small amount of tip dieback. I have not noticed any disease or insect problems. I give it a clip in the spring after flowering and it stays nice and compact.

Bill Boyle
Wilson's Nursery