Planting Sorbaria (+ suckering on white Lilac)

Not often I buy a plant, certainly a £10+ one, without knowing anything about it, but on a visit to Batsford Arboretum I came away with a Sorbaria shrub, impressed by its lovely foliage. I just want to ask anyone's experience with these, mainly in terms of the warnings I see in places that they can be invasive via suckering. It says it'll be a 1m shrub, but I often find that misleading - my "1.5m" Sambucus Black Lace for instance is an impressive 8 feet after 7/8 years, even with annual pruning, so any experience of real world height/spread would be welcome as well in terms of siting. Searching has given mixed messages, some making no mention of any suckering. The only shrub I've met with suckering is the lovely white lilac I got via cutting from my father-in-law. He didn't encounter suckering, and other my lilac doesn't sucker but I've left this one too long with some large suckers now to deal with. 2nd question I guess - do I just dig these up, tear off if possible, and pot up what I can to re-site or give away?
Thank you.

 

I really like Sobaria shrub @DaveMK , we have had a few over the years. Every time we have eventually had to take them up was because they grew too big and put out suckers like mad. So beware! But if you have the space and can keep on top of extracting the suckering shoots you will be rewarded with a beautiful shrub. Lovely foliage and lovely white flowers.

 

@DaveMK my partner bought a sorbaria a while ago and we put it in a medium sized pot. It grew nicely and suckered even within that pot. I took one of the suckers and planted it in a small pot, and even that plant is now quite big, with minimal care. Both are easily 1m tall, at least. I like the plant, it can even deal with shade, but I would only put it on the ground if I wanted it to cover a difficult area I think, and was prepared to keep it maintained after it has done that.

If you do want it in the ground, you could actually bury a cheap plastic pot in the ground to restrict it?

 

It is a plant once weed out forever plant.

 

Our experience after having two in the ground for 5-6 years is that 1m isn't far off but your 1.5m estimate is probably about right. We have really sandy soil and it may behave differently in a heavy fertile soil, but we do get suckering. The suckering wasn't really noticeable until a couple of years ago but now we find little plants popping up a few feet from the main plant. They are easy to dig and remove though. The bees are currently loving the flowers, it's one of their favourite plants (and we garden for bees).

So my advice is that if running plants can be a problem in your garden, things like japanese anemones etc, then it would be worth either keeping it in a pot or creating a barrier to slow it down a bit.


I've not encountered suckering on my lilacs but if they are big suckers then it might be worth pruning them to a smaller height now, letting them bush out a little over the summer and then try digging them out in the winter/spring.

 

Oh dear. Thanks everyone. I'm kicking myself for the Sorbaria, and can't face the problems it would pose. On the other hand Songbird is quite persuasive so it's going to be a dilemma. Hopefully I've copied a photo of the lilac + suckers. I've left it so long as I've never known what to do with it. My father-in-law didn't seem to prune his, but of course it's now very leggy.

 

@DaveMK it's a nice plant. Ours aren't very colourful at the moment, but I still like them.




If you want it in the ground, do consider the idea of burying a plastic pot. This is what I have done with this amelanchier (they're generally considered very safe but that spot was so close to the house and I wanted to be sure). I had used a massive pot (I think it was 160L) but a sorbaria will grow in a much smaller space.

On the other hand, if you want to keep things simple, you can use the sorbaria in a normal pot and get something else for that spot.

 

I had a lilac here when I moved in 12 years ago. It was suckering then and continues to do so now, even though I cut it to the ground last year after falling on it from the border above . A plant with a vengeance.

I think the idea of including a barrier around your Sorbaria is a good one. If you remain undecided after a while it will be easier to remove. It’s not a plant I have ever considered growing but the one that @CostasK has in a pot looks attractive.

 

I had problems with a lilac suckering over the end of my garden in Essex; a spray with ammonium sulfamate solution killed it and all the suckers very dead in a couple of months.
I had previously dug out the lilac hedge at the front of the property, multiple weekends of work.

 

I meant to reply last night but I got side-tracked. Certainly my thought till I saw @CostasK's amazing pot display was there would be nowhere I could put the Sorbaria in my garden, but having seen that lovely specimen in what isn't a huge pot I'm going to almost certainly go down the pot route. We may already have a couple big enough, and it would go nicely in a quite sheltered corner outside the conservatory - though that spot might have to go to the new Acer Palmatum Anne Irene, which I've just planted out, but would have to go in a pot if the place I've planted it proves not to be sheltered enough.

Lilac must be one of the many shrubs I've not pruned/handled correctly, as my other standard lilac has no growth on some branches, and only high growth on others. I did try half-heartedly to pull out the suckers 4/5 years ago, but it was really hard going, and I'm at the age where I'd be silly to attempt things I could handle 10 years ago.

Thanks once again; every comment has been useful and appreciated.