Ninebark
Physocarpus opulifolius
Grown as much for its foliage color as its flowers, and that color only holds where the sun actually reaches it.
- Type
- Shrub · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Purple and burgundy
- Flower color
- White
- Sunlight
- Full sun to partial shade, though the leaf color only holds in sun.
- Watering
- Moderate; copes with dry spells once established.
- Feeding
- A light feed each spring.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- June
- Pruning
- A renewal prune once a year, straight after flowering.
- Overwintering
- Fully hardy; no winter protection needed.
- Mar–Apr Bud Break
- Apr–Jun Spring Growth
- Jun–Aug Flowering
- Aug–Nov Growing
- Nov–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Mar Leaf Fall
- Plant spacing
- 6 ft 7 in
- In-row spacing
- 6 ft 7 in
- Between rows
- 8 ft 2 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody and fibrous
- Working depth
- 12–24 in
- Can reach
- 3 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 10–13 ft across, about 1.5–2× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 20 in of soil
A shallow woody framework with the fine feeding roots in the leaf litter above it. Those feeders are mostly under the outer half of the canopy rather than against the stem, which is where water and feed should go.
The habit is Ninebark’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
Shrubs, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com