Pruning Weigela
Pruning Weigela Plants
Pruning Weigela plants properly is the best way to ensure your garden can get the most out of these attractive shrubs. These plants create blooms each season on the prior season’s woody growth, so proper pruning a necessary to limit the growth of these aggressively growing plants and still produce the largest amount of flowers each year.
Weigelas are a deciduous shrub that is related to honeysuckle plants. They grow to be about 4-6 feet tall and have arching branches covered with dark oval leaves and produce trumpet-shaped flowers. These flowers can range from pink to white in color. Weigela flowers are useful for attracting garden visitors like hummingbirds and butterflies. They will grow best if they are planted in well-draining, sandy soil in full sunlight and fertilized once a year, not too late in the season. Weigela can aggressively grow to an inappropriate size and may become leggy in appearance, or when the stems grow longer and are covered with fewer buds and flowers. With proper pruning, Weigela plants will bloom brightly in late spring to summer.
The best way to prune Weigela plants is by selective pruning, or using hand pruners to choose selective cuts specifically. Avoid using electric or gas powered trimmers as where you make the cut on each stem is important. Pruning is an easy and fun task that will get you out into the garden for a little while anyway. The best time to prune Weigela plants is in mid-summer immediately after the last of the flowers has faded. Decide the best way to shape the top of the plant in a natural form before making too many cuts. Avoid specific shapes like the mushroom style with Weigela.
Run your hand down each stem and cut it down to about 1/3rd of its length. You will want to cut just above a bud or shoot at a 45 degree angle. The direction of the new growth will be determined by the direction of this angle so this can help you shape your plant. As with pruning any type of plant, be sure to use sharp pruning shears that will not crush or damage the stem and prevent its re-growth. Get down into the base of the plant and remove any damaged or dead stems. Also remove any ground level branches. If specific branches are too leggy in appearance for your taste, you can cut them down to a healthy shoot. By properly cutting 1/3rd of each stem each year, you will work to prevent letting your Weigela plant become leggy in the first place.
Always remove weaker branches that sap nutrients away from growing branches and rake up and remove your cuttings to help prevent disease and molds. Remove overcrowded branches and those that cross one another into the center of the plant to help improve air circulation and prevent health problems with your plant. Again, you will want to remember that the Weigela blooms on last year’s woody growth, so if the plant is healthy you can alter its shape but be careful not to prevent any blooms from coming next year by pruning them too late in the season. Pruning too early, or before the flowers are gone will prevent them from blooming at all this season.
Growing and caring for Weigela plants in your outdoor garden is easy. These plants are easy to grow and require little maintenance except occasional watering and selective pruning once a year. By pruning Weigela plants properly and giving them plenty of space to grow, you will be rewarded with plants that are large, healthy and display a reliable blooming pattern of bright pink or white flowers each year.