How To Prepare Weigela For Winter?

Weigela is a fairly easygoing plant, and one that can cope with a variety of temperatures and conditions with not too much difficulty. However, what do you know about how to prepare weigela for winter? Read on, for our best hints and tips to keep this beauty flourishing!

How To Prepare Weigela For Winter

This plant is fairly tolerant to most conditions, but like most plants it will like a little TLC as the coldest months approach:

Give it several good waterings before the winter arrives, to ensure the plant has enough to see it through if the winter is dry.

This plant is slow to go dormant, so giving the roots good access to water is essential – plus watering in the autumn can help to keep the roots warm.

They will like to have a good thick layer of mulch around the roots, to keep the plant warm and cosy as the temperatures drop.

Water during the winter only in the middle of the morning, on a sunny day, to allow the surface of the soil to warm enough so the water reaches the roots.

Keep an eye out for sun scald, which can happen in young or recently transplanted weigela and is caused by cold but sunny days stimulating the stems before they get chilled.

You can wrap your weigela, or hang up some sheeting around it to keep off the worst of the cold air and frost.

If your weigela is in a pot, you can consider bringing it indoors or popping it in a greenhouse.

Younger plants can be less hardy, so a little more care may well need to be taken, at least until it is larger and more established.

Weigela is a fairly hardy plant, but like most plants it will struggle a little more in the winter. Take care of it, and it will bounce right back next year!

Can Weigela Be Cut Down To The Ground?

A really hard pruning can seem like a bit of a drastic step, but it can really help your weigela.

• If your weigela is affected by a disease or has been damaged, you can take the drastic step of cutting it right back to the ground.
• You will find that it bounces back quite quickly, and although it may not bloom the year it is pruned, you will get abundant flowers the following year.
• If you have inherited an old weigela, or one that has not been maintained very well, you will probably find that it does not grow or flower too well.
• If the bush is made up of stems that are more than 1 inch thick, the bush will not produce its best blooms.
• If this is the case with yours, then cutting it right back to 4 inches about the soil line will likely solve the issue.
• You won’t have any flowers that year, but the following year you will almost certainly be rewarded with bright, healthy new growth.
• Weigela is a very fast growing, relatively hardy plant, so trimming it back hard can only help it to grow even better in the future. Once you’ve pruned it, you won’t have long to wait before it’s back!

This video shows you how to cut weigela right back, for the best results:

Should You Deadhead Weigela?

Although deadheading is considered an important part of maintaining flowering plants, weigela is a bit of an exception…

• This plant doesn’t really need to be deadheaded, as the spent blooms will simply drop off and be replaced.
• Instead of deadheading, you should prune your weigela after the flowers are done, to encourage new growth the following year.
• Make sure to only cut back the stems that have flowered, as trimming back any others can prevent next year’s flower growth.
• Although weigela originally only came in red, nowadays new cultivars exist in pink, red, white, peach colors and even purple!
• This will add a gorgeous splash of color to your garden during the flowering season, and all sorts of pollinators will enjoy the flowers too.
• You can, if you like, deadhead your weigela if you like your shrubs to look neat and tidy. But, this hardy little plant doesn’t really need it. That’s one less job for you!

Do Weigela Lose Their Leaves In The Winter?

Some plants are evergreen, meaning that they keep their leaves all year round, while others are deciduous and lose their leaves in winter.

Weigela is considered a deciduous shrub, so it will drop its leaves at the end of autumn, before the really cold temperatures start to kick in.

The leaves are just as attractive as the flowers, so you may find that your weigela looks at its very best right in the middle of the summer, when the flowers are spent but the leaves are at their best.

Once the leaves are all shed, the plant will have less protection from the frosts and icy winds, so you may wish to protect it.

The bare stems of weigela can be vulnerable to sun scald in the winter, where the sun warms the stems but then the temperature drops again at night.

If you notice dried or cracked bark and shriveled, sunken stems, you will need to wrap your weigela up warm!

Mulching the roots is always a good bet, and you can also choose to wrap your weigela with cloth gardening sacks to keep off the worst of the cold.

This lovely bush tends to be fine no matter what its surrounding temperatures, so you shouldn’t have to worry about it too much.

However, all plants need a little extra TLC during the winter – hopefully now you have some good ideas on how to look after your weigela so that it can keep going throughout the coldest seasons!