Leaf
Alpsdake, Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
Japanese spiraea
Spiraea japonica L.f.
Also known as: Japanese meadowsweet
Family: Rosaceae
60 cm to 1.50 m tall
Planted in hedges and garden borders
Flowering: June – August
Full sun
Hardy to about -25°C
❓ How do you recognise this plant?
Unlike most spiraeas, which flower in spring, Japanese spiraea flowers in midsummer — a late flowering that is rare in this genus. Japanese spiraea has pink flowers in small flat clusters all summer; Van Houtte's spiraea flowers only once, in spring, in cascades of small white flowers along arching twigs.
🍃 Leaves
Lanceolate, toothed, bright green, sometimes tinged with purple depending on the variety
🌸 Flowers
Small, pink, grouped in dense flat corymbs at the tops of the twigs
🍎 Fruits
Small dry follicle, barely visible
🪵 Bark
Slender, angular, reddish-brown twigs
🗺️ Distribution
Native to East Asia; widely grown and sometimes naturalised in France
🐝 Value for pollinators
Summer flowering very rich in nectar, heavily visited by bees and butterflies
✂️ Horticultural uses
Shrub for low hedges or borders, valued for its prolonged summer flowering and ease of cultivation
⚠️ Possible toxicity
No known toxicity
🌱 Known cultivars
Goldflame
Its foliage steals the show: the young shoots emerge coppery orange in spring, turn golden yellow in summer then orange-red in autumn, on a compact 60 to 80 cm shrub topped with small pink flowers in June–July.
Little Princess
Forms a compact, regular dome 60 to 80 cm tall with fine blue-green foliage, covered with small bright pink flowers in early summer — an essential classic for small gardens and borders.
Anthony Waterer
Old cultivar (late 19th century) still very widely planted, recognisable by its large flat corymbs of carmine-pink flowers that follow one another all summer on a spreading 60 to 90 cm shrub.
⚠️ Look-alike species
Japanese spiraea
Spiraea japonica
Van Houtte's spiraea
Spiraea x vanhouttei
Japanese spiraea has pink flowers in small flat clusters all summer; Van Houtte's spiraea flowers only once, in spring, in cascades of small white flowers along arching twigs.
🌿 Other Rosaceae to discover
ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.
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