Welcome to This Month in the Garden! There is a new flowering shrub in town, and it is called Spirea Big Bang 'Candy Corn', scientific name Spirea japonica. While this shrub produces wonderful deep pinkish-lavender blooms in summer, in this designer's opinion it's all about the ever-changing medley of foliage! This new cultivar was developed by Dr. Tom Ranney of North Carolina State University and has become popular for several reasons, one of them being that it is considered sterile and non-invasive.
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| Spirea Big Bang 'Candy Corn' Summer Foliage |
Cold hardy to USDA zones 4-8, Double Play 'Candy Corn' thrives best in full sun and a well-drained soil and offers an ever-changing array of foliage color, from bright red to candy corn orange to yellow-green. Summer foliage color is determined by exposure. Leaves are darker in part shade, and a brighter yellow in sunny exposures. Pollinator friendly blooms offer another round of color in late spring and early summer. This dwarf form of Spirea stays compact and rounded at a height of 18-24 inches high by wide at maturity and is compact enough to grow in a container. I was also surprised to see this variety getting spring buds before any of the other Spirea.
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| Spirea Big Bang 'Candy Corn' Late Winter/Early Spring |
This cultivar is adaptable to a wide range of soil conditions, including clay and is drought tolerant once established. With its small size, little to no pruning is required, making it
perfect for low-maintenance gardens. This flowering shrub is also deer and
rabbit resistant.
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| Spirea Big Bang 'Candy Corn' Spring Foliage |
