Weigela florida Seeds | Weigela
LATIN NAME: Weigela florida
COMMON NAME: Weigela
Plant Profile
Weigela florida is a deciduous shrub from Japan, Korea and northeastern China, growing two to three metres tall on arching branches that root where they touch the ground. The leaves are opposite, oval and softly hairy, and the flowers open in late May in clusters along the whole length of the previous year’s stems, not just at the tips.
Each flower is a funnel about three centimetres long, pink to rose-red outside and paler within, and a well-grown plant can carry several hundred at once. A second, lighter flush often comes in August. The genus is named for Christian Weigel, a German botanist who corresponded with Linnaeus and whose name also survives in the mineral weigelite.
Science & Biotechnology
Weigela florida was described by Carl Peter Thunberg in 1780 as Diervilla florida, and it stayed in Diervilla until the 1830s, when it was separated on the shape of the seed and the capsule. The genus now sits in Diervillaceae, or in Caprifoliaceae in the older, broader sense, and it is close to Diervilla of North America. The two genera are a textbook example of the eastern Asia to eastern North America disjunction that has puzzled biogeographers since Asa Gray.
The showy flowers are pollinated by long-tongued bumblebees, and the tube is long enough that short-tongued visitors can only rob nectar by piercing the base. Many garden weigelas are hybrids with Weigela coraeensis or W. hortensis rather than the pure species, which is why the colour range in cultivation is wider than anything found in the wild.
Uses & Benefits
Weigela earns its place by flowering in the gap between the spring shrubs and the roses, when little else is out. The arching habit makes it useful on a bank or at the edge of a border, where the branches can spill forward, and it takes hard pruning, which few early-flowering shrubs do: cut a third of the old stems to the ground each year after flowering and the plant renews itself from the base.
The nectar is accessible to bumblebees, and a flowering weigela in May is loud with them. Variegated and purple-leaved forms are grown for foliage as much as flower, and Foliis Purpureis holds its dark colour best in full sun. It has no medicinal use and no edible part; this is a shrub for show, and for the bees that arrive with it.
Growing from Seed
Weigela seed is small and germinates without pretreatment, but it must be fresh: stored seed loses viability within a year. Surface-sow in late winter onto a mix of equal parts peat-free compost and perlite, press the seed down but do not cover it, and stand the tray in a propagator at 18-21 °C with light. Germination takes two to four weeks.
Prick out when the first true pair of leaves is open, because the seedlings crowd quickly, and grow them on cool and airy to keep them stocky. Plant out in autumn in any reasonable soil, in sun or light shade; the purple-leaved forms need sun to colour well. Cut back hard after flowering every second or third year to stop the shrub becoming a tangle of old wood with flowers only at the top.
Our Take
A forgiving shrub that flowers in the gap after the spring display. Prune it hard after flowering and it will keep renewing itself for decades.
Related Reading
More species in the same orbit as Weigela: