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Weigela

The Weigela is October's plant of the month. 

Common Name:                     Weigela
Botanical Name:                     Weigela florida
Family:                                    Caprifoliaceae

Habitat and Distribution

Weigela is in the Caprifoliaceae (honeysuckle) family and is native to North China, Korea, and Japan.  All 38 Weigela species are deciduous shrubs growing to a height of 1–5m with ornate ‘honeysuckle-like’ flowers.

Description

For sheer romantic charm, few ornamental plants rival the character and beauty of old fashioned Weigela floida.  It is a dense, rounded, deciduous shrub with somewhat coarse branches that tend to arch toward the ground as the shrub reaches maturity.

For approximately two weeks each mid to late spring, and after the leaves emerge, there is a show-stopping proliferation of vibrant pinky-rose coloured tubular flowers that cover the entire shrub.  There is a repeat, though sparser, flowering in mid to late summer.  W. florida is also available in a white flowering variety, known as W. florida alba.
 
Elliptic to obovate, medium green leaves with serrate margins retain good colour throughout the growing season. Fruit is inconspicuous.

History

The Weigela genus is named after the German scientist Christian Ehrenfried Weigel.  In 1845, Robert Fortune imported Weigela florida to England, the first species to be used in ornamental British and European gardens.  Following the opening of Japan to the West, several other Weigela species were obtained by European plant-hunters in the 1850s and 1860s.

Celebrating the beauty of Weigela, there is a British Weigela national collection in Sheffield Botanic Gardens and a German Weigela national collection in  Maerkische-Schweiz.

Ecology

Flowers attract butterflies, bees and nectar feeding birds. Weigela is used as a food plant by larvae of some Lepidoptera species.

Uses

An attractive landscape and garden plant that is hardy and easy to grow.

Where to see the Weigela Rush in Centennial Parklands

Column Garden. Map Ref: L10.