Weigela 'BRISTOL RUBY' weigela

Bristol Ruby is vigorous weigela variety with rich purple red flowers from late May until June, and again in late August. They are funnel-shaped, 2-4 cm long, and appear regularly in profusion. Leaves are deciduous, fresh green, broadly elliptic to narrowly obovate, gently serrated at margins, and healthy. The tallest branches on mature plants tend to arch under their heavy load of flowers.

Pruning is essential if you want a pretty plant which they can easily be. Since they flower mostly on previous year's wood prune them by one third or even one half right after flowering in June so that they have enough of time to make plenty of new twigs that will mature quickly and bear plenty of flowers in the next season. Use them as screening plants in informal flowering hedges, in parks and public landscapes, or as specimens in small sized gardens.

Weigelas thrive in semi-fertile, slightly moist soil, preferably in full sun, however you can often see them growing in part shade or even complete shade and they still bloom. They can take heavy and compacted soil, too, but will need more time to become nice and bushy. Occasional flooding is not a problem, in fact, they prefer excess water rather than drought. Their hardiness varies with variety, but usually they withstand min. -29°C (USDA zone 5) and this one can take down to -34°C (USDA zone 4). In spite of their hardiness large growing weigelas are not suitable for outdoor pots (risk of drying out in winter).

Last update: 02-10-2010; 19-01-2019