There are only 15 varieties of deciduous weigel shrubs in the world, 3 of which grow in the Russian Far East. One of the unique properties of this plant, belonging to the Honeysuckle family, is flowering twice in the summer. The first begins in May and lasts until mid-June, the second often causes people to be overwhelmed, as the blooming weigela (Weigela Florida) violates the canons of the seasons, and when the leaves begin to turn yellow on the trees and shrubs, it blooms again. It happens at the end of August and lasts until the end of September.
Shrub description
Weigela blooming attracts the eye of everyone who sees it, and this is not surprising. The shrub, strewn with large, bell-like flowers, “beckons” to come and plunge into their aroma. In fact, they do not smell, but this is not important, since their five-petal bell-shaped form is up to 5see in itself - a work of art.
Shrub flowers not only come in different shades (it depends on the variety of weigela), but they can also change depending on the air temperature and the duration of flowering. Petiolate leaves with serrated or serrated-serrate edges, which in some varieties have purple, yellow or white edging, are distinguished by a rich dark green color and a rather long length. Therefore, the weigela shrub, which grows up to 2 m in height, is also attractive during the “rest” period: from mid-June to the end of August. Densely strewn with velvety foliage, it will decorate any landscape.
It is impossible to describe flowering weigela without mentioning the variety of its colors. They come in cream, red, white, yellow, raspberry, lilac, pink and carmine shades, both single and collected in large inflorescences.
Interesting to know: when the weigela (photo above) is just blooming, few people will pay attention to it, since at first its flowers are faded and not attractive in any way. But after a short time, people will be surprised to find that, as if by magic, bright inflorescences appeared on the bushes, the color of which becomes more saturated every day.
Weigela varieties
To be honest, there are only a few species of winter-hardy blooming weigela, so you can meet them as a landscape decoration only in regions with a warm or temperate climate. The exceptions are the Far Eastern varieties and several hybrids. Most popular plant species:
- Weigela early shrub - this two-meter "giant" tolerates frost well and is found in the Ussuri Territory, China and North Korea. This plant is hard to miss thanks to its large clusters of bright pink or purple-red flowers that lower their heads to the ground. This variety of weigela (photo by Weigela Praecox below) is unpretentious, easily takes root in home gardens and serves as a decoration for hedges. Blooms for 30 days.
- Weigela Suavis, or pleasant weigela, does not differ in size and grows up to a maximum of 1.5 m in height. The plant deserved such an unusual “name” thanks to its flowers. Bells, reaching a length of 6 cm, have a gradient color, which consists in transitions from one color to another, for example, from white to pink, from lilac to cream, or vice versa.
- Weigela blooming (Weigela Florida) is the combined name for hybrid varieties. Among them are both 3-meter giants and dwarf representatives of the shrub. All hybrids differ from wild-growing "relatives" in a brighter color saturation of flowers and a variety of their shades. Many flower growers use dwarf species of blooming weigels to decorate balconies, loggias or home greenhouses. A similar love for the shrub is caused by its decorative qualities, beauty and unpretentiousness in care.
- Nana variegata - weigela with unusually beautiful leaves. Nana Variegata attracts attention not only during its flowering, but also without it. Its large leaves are pale green.have a yellow border around the edge, which immediately distinguishes it from other shrubs.
These varieties of weigela are most often found in city parks and home gardens.
Best time and place to land
Experienced gardeners say that for planting this shrub (three-year-old seedlings are taken into account), you need to choose the right time. So, if you produce it in the fall, even if it is warm, and the first frost is still far away, the plant may still not survive the winter. This is due to the fact that weigela simply does not have time to take root properly.
Advice: if shrub seedlings were purchased in the fall, it is better not to rush to plant them. It is enough to dig them together with most of the crown and cover with spruce branches until next spring.
Planting weigela in blooming spring also requires knowledge of what time will be right for this “procedure”. So, experienced gardeners advise doing this in the interval when the earth has already thawed and warmed up to a certain depth, but fruit or ornamental tree species have not yet bloomed.
To choose the moment, you should observe how the buds of the trees in the garden swell. If their leaves are already hatching, then flowering weigela can be safely planted.
Interesting to know: the flowers of the shrub are very sensitive to the wind and, if its breath becomes stronger, they can simply crumble in all their glory. Therefore, weigela planting should be approached with all seriousness and choose a place for it on the south side of the site with good lighting andprotection from wind and drafts.
How to plant shrubs
So, the place and time have been chosen, it remains to decide on the soil and start planting flowering weigela.
If the site is dominated by clay soil, peat or black earth, then a well-mixed soil mixture of sand and turf should be added to each well. For this shrub, it is important that the earth is loose and absorbs moisture well.
The depth of the hole directly depends on the size of the root system of the seedling, but, as a rule, 40-50 cm is enough. The bottom of each hole must be covered with a 15-centimeter layer of any drainage. It can be either gravel, familiar to many gardeners, or improvised building material, for example, broken brick or expanded clay crushed stone.
Before planting, fertilizers are added to the soil mixture. For this, a bucket of compost with 100 g of nitrophoska per seedling is quite suitable.
Interesting to know: experienced gardeners take the opportunity to speed up the rooting process of weigela, for which, for some time before planting, place its roots in a solution with a growth stimulator.
Having lowered the shrub into the hole, it should be sprinkled so that its root collar is on the same level with the ground, tamp down with your hands and immediately water it. It is recommended to mulch a young seedling with sawdust or straw so that during its rooting, moisture is kept in the soil as long as possible.
If seedlings of tall varieties are used for planting, then the distance between the holes should be at least 2.5 m, whiledwarf varieties can be planted 80 cm apart.
Shrub: care in spring and winter
So, what care is required for flowering weigela depending on the time of year? In the spring, immediately after planting, you need to check how dry the soil is, and water it at the first sign of drying out. If it is mulched, then the number of waterings can be significantly reduced, but in the dry season, you should check the level of soil moisture.
As weeds appear, they will have to be disposed of, but the soil will have to be loosened quite often. This should be done with extreme caution so as not to damage the root system, since the depth of loosening is not less than the bayonet of a shovel.
If the plant is not the first year on the site, then it will need spring top dressing, but if it was applied when planting a seedling, then the next one can be done only in the third year. By this time, weigela will already need to stimulate growth and the appearance of new shoots and leaves, so she will need a full range of mineral fertilizers. Ammophoska or other fertilizers, which include nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, are quite suitable for this.
Feed the plant twice during the spring: the first time when the heat is established, and the second - during the formation of flowers. In the latter case, potash and phosphate fertilizers, such as superphosphate, will be required.
Preparation for winter at weigela begins with autumn top dressing, which is applied under the root while digging the earth and consists of wood ash at the rate of 200 g per 1m2. You can use the special fertilizer "Kemir-Autumn" and follow the instructions on the preparation.
Weigela shelter in the southern regions with warm winters is not required, it will be enough to sprinkle the trunk with a thick layer of mulch after loosening the soil. If winters do not please with their low temperatures, then the gardener will have to tinker. Some experienced summer residents tie the branches of the shrub and wrap it with black film, hay, spruce branches or agrofibre.
Interesting to know: the branches and trunk of the weigela are not as afraid of frost as its root system, so the insulation should never be laid on the trunk circle if the ground is still wet. You should wait until it dries completely, loosen it, sprinkle it with peat or compost on top and after that put spruce branches or hay.
Propagation of shrubs by seeds
The longest and most troublesome way to grow flowering weigela is to propagate it with seeds. To grow a strong and beautiful plant, you need:
- Select a seed that retains its germination capacity for no more than a year, which should be taken into account. Seeds do not need pretreatment.
- Sow in flower pots or other containers that are conveniently covered with foil or glass.
- Wait for friendly seedlings, thin them out and dive plants after the appearance of 2 pairs of leaves.
- Transplant a young plant into a larger box or pot for growing. In the warm season, it can be taken out into the street and placed in the shade of trees withsparse crown.
- 2-year-old weigela already reaches a height of 40-50 cm.
Watering, fertilizing and loosening the soil in a pot - that's all the care of the seedling, and at 3 years old it can already be transplanted into open ground for a permanent place of "residence". Weigela will bloom for 4 years.
Propagation by cuttings
This is another way to grow weigela, which is preferred by many gardeners, because thanks to it the plant will bloom at the age of 2 years.
For cuttings, young green shoots are taken, which have just begun to slightly woody. Leaves are removed from them (each leaf can be cut only by ½), and the branches themselves are placed in water for a couple of hours. After that, the material must be processed in a growth stimulator, so it is immersed in it for 12 hours and placed in a dark place with a temperature of at least +20˚С.
As a rule, for grafting weigela, the lower cut of the shoots is made straight, which is caused by the opposite arrangement of its leaves. When the stalk has passed the "procedure" of accelerating growth, it is transplanted into a container with a soil mixture of peat and sand, immersed in it by 1 cm, sprinkled with river sand (3-4 cm), watered and covered with a film.
In order for the rooting to go well, the sprout should be watered twice a day.
How to cut weigela
Crown care for young and old plants is different. So, in a weigela, which is only a couple of years old, only broken, frozen or heavily thickened branches should be pruned. Work is carried out in the spring.
When the bush has already grown, you should start forminghis crowns. The best time for this is the interval between the first and second flowering of weigela, since new shoots have not yet grown by this period.
Interesting to know: the flowering of this type of shrub comes from shoots formed in the current year, and if for some reason the summer pruning was skipped, it is better not to do it at all, but to transfer everything to the next year.
For shrubs aged 4-5 years, anti-aging pruning is required, which should then be carried out every 3 years. During this procedure, the gardener removes all branches that are more than three years old, and only shortens the rest.
In some cases, complete pruning of all branches is acceptable, which is done to bring the weigela back to life. As a rule, such a procedure has a beneficial effect on the bush.
Pests
Who weigela should be afraid of is aphids and caterpillars, although in a hot dry summer it may be "attacked" by a spider mite. The best way to get rid of unwanted guests is:
- Anabazine sulfate, solution 0, 2 percent.
- Combination of soap solution with nicotine sulfate (0.4%).
- Chlorophos 0.3 or 0.5%.
From folk remedies against these pests, infusions of garlic, shag, hot pepper help.
Weigela in the landscape
Many gardeners give this shrub a place near the porch of the house or under the windows, which is understandable, given its beautiful flowering and lush foliage. In fact, it deserves to be the center of the landscape, which is what designers often do when creating unusu altracks.
So, weigela goes well with barberry, it will look chic surrounded by thuja or several junipers or majestically rise above poppies or ornamental grasses.
It is less commonly used to create a hedge, but even in this incarnation it looks spectacular and regularly acts as a dividing line.
