Planting for pollinators: Weigela

 

The Weigela has been a garden favorite for a long time. The flower display is best in early summer, but weigela will bloom sporadically through the summer and into fall.

The shape and color of the blooms will attract hummingbirds, butterflies, bees and other pollinators such as this Hawk Moth. Hawk moths are often mistaken for hummingbirds as they dart from plant to plant and hover to feed from tubular flowers. Weigela prefers to be planted in full sun. It will still flower when planted in light shade, but not as prolifically.

Once you’ve got your plant home and selected the site for your weigela, dig a hole twice as wide and slightly deeper than the shrub's root ball.

Amend the soil by incorporating compost or peat moss at about 50:50 with your native soil. Add some bone meal and plant your weigela so the top of the root ball is level with the ground around it. Fill in soil around the sides. Because weigela bloom on wood that’s a year old, the best time to prune weigela is right after they finish blooming. That is to say the wood that grows this year will bloom next year and you want to prune your shrub before the blooming wood has a chance to grow.

My Monet® 'Sunset'

'Red Prince' weigela will grow to 5' to 6' and 4' to 5' wide.

'Minuet' is a more compact Weigela which will grow to about 30" in height and about 2' to 3' across.  

'Wine and Roses'