What the flippin' 'eck is this then?

BobFlannigon

Anyone know what this is?  It's about 5ft tall, bushy and a bit 'spready'. Deciduous.

Lupin 1

Spiraea douglasii ? 

Dovefromabove

Spirea douglasii?

https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/22834/Spiraea-douglasii/Details?returnurl=%2Fplants%2Fsearch-results%3Fcontext%3Db%25253D0%252526hf%25253D10%252526l%25253Den%252526q%25253DSpiraea%252526s%25253Ddesc%25252528plant_merged%25252529%252526sl%25253Dplants%26s%3Ddesc(plant_merged)%26query%3DSpiraea%26form-mode%3Dfalse%26page%3D1%26aliaspath%3D%252fplants%252fsearch-results 

Dovefromabove

Snap KEF 

BobFlannigon

Nailed it in only a few minutes.  House points all round!!

Thanks.

Nanniemo

Good luck with that. My neighbours either side of me have got it along my boundary fences and their gardens are quite 'wild'. I hate it, it's very invasive and I'm always trying to get it out and then another  bit pops up! Grrr! 

Fiona72

Hi everyone, never seen this, thought it was a buddleia - I quite like the look of that. I could use it along the fence in "my" garden.  I live in a 2-storey block of flats. There is a large back garden that once was just a lawn with a huge bramble hedge surrounding a disused laundry yard.  

I took on the challenge and (with my daughter's help and the encouragement of the management) over 3 years, have turned it into a place for people to sit and enjoy the birds and other wildlife that now inhabit the garden.

The first thing that was done was by the owners  a Housing Association (HA) - I asked them to remove the brambles (and rubbish that passersby had thrown into it). Once they did this, I then asked that the 6ft high fence between the garden and the laundry yard, be halved. Again, done and nicely weather-coated. They then removed the old laundry poles and I put in my first (plastic) "greenhouse". My daughter built me raised beds all along the wooden fence, filled it with topsoil and horse manure, covered it with compost and let it settle.  (not for too long though).

As my work progressed and the HA saw the garden come alive, they built 3 large raised beds and filled them with (very poor) soil which I have topped up with compost and horse manure.  They saw this being done and provided the tenants with 2 large grey-glass-topped tables and 12 rattan-style armchairs; to top this all off they also supplied 2 huge wind-up umbrellas. In order for the tenants to get to these lovely tables and chairs, the HA had an all-weather path put in between the raised beds, with a large enough "turning circle" for those wheelchairs and motorised scooters.

We now have all sorts of plants and shrubs among the existing holly "trees" etc.  I have a prolific veggie plot, with 2 huge rhubarbs, early- mid- and late-potatoes surround Swiss chard of all colours, beans (both dwarf and climbers), sweet peas. Onions and shallots are flanked by various types of carrots. The 3 large beds have blueberries, gooseberries (red Japanese-type), various lettuce, radish and spring onions side-by-side with English wildflowers - I could wax on lyrically! 

Some of the tenants don't like what I've done, but I don't care.  I was fed up looking at a space that literally said "abandon hope all ye who enter here".  My real problem is a couple of pairs of pigeons! I hate them!  Although I feed them and the whole gaggle of jackdaws (what is their collective name?) across the other side of the garden - and NOT stingily; they still pinch the small-bird food that I put out for all my chaffinches, sparrow, resident robin, a whole FAMILY of blackbirds - never before saw a male feeding offspring and teaching them to dig for worms!  As I live in a Cotswold  village with a river running through, coated with ducks, I also have my winter resident duck and 2 drakes, both of whom guard her throughout the winter and into spring, with their ducklings.

I'm sorry I've rambled on - all I really wanted to know was - are you willing to supply me with a couple or three plants?  I'll gladly pay postage.  Many thanks.

Fiona72

B3

Before the flowers come out, it's boring. After they've finished(about a fortnight), the dead blooms look awful.

Hoiked one out this year.

Fairygirl

For me, it's on a par with that flowering currant in spring. Similar colour.

I know many people like it but it gives me the     

Dovefromabove

Don't mind the colour ........ it's the colour combined with the fluffiness that I'm not keen on .......... and then the miserable brown of the dead flower heads - never been keen on it, not since I was a child ... it sort of reminds me of an itchy mohair scarf I was given ............. 

nutcutlet

I hate it

and the rest of the spiraeas