4 Tips on When & How To Prune Weigela
-
- Last updated:
Weigelas are gorgeous and romantic deciduous shrubs that grow lovely clusters of colorful flowers in spring. While growing these beautiful flowering plants in your garden will be a rewarding hobby, maintaining a strong and healthy weigela shrub is not as hard as you think. These plants are pretty easy to grow once you know a few basics.
Pruning your weigela plant can be one of the smartest decisions, especially if you want to add new growth to your already colorful shrub. There is always a clever solution, even if you seek ways to salvage your seemingly dead plant. If you’d like to learn a few tricks on pruning your weigela plant, read the article below; it contains many helpful tips.
The 4 Tips on When and How To Prune Weigela
1. Pruning Weigelas As Regular Maintenance
The most common reason you should be pruning your weigela is as a part of regular maintenance. It would help if you did this after every flowering around the beginning of June. It is essential to prune the plant at the right time to avoid damaging any potential blooms. If you prune it too soon, you may be removing the flower buds from last year that were getting ready to bloom again; if you prune too late, the plant won’t have time to recover for the following year’s blooming season.
- When to Prune: From late winter to early spring.
Carefully examine your weigela plant for dead or old branches. Trim the branches right after the point where the two branches meet. Remember never to prune more than one-third of the plant during one season.
2. Pruning Weigelas To Rejuvenate Them
Rejuvenation is the process of removing old branches from a plant, leaving only the young and healthy ones to thrive. Your weigela plant will look best if they are mostly made of young wood. When pruning weigelas to rejuvenate them, finding branches at least 1 ½ inch thick is best. It is essential to decide which branches to prune upfront. Pruning to rejuvenate weigela will renew the plant in 3 to 5 years.
- When to Prune: From January to February, while avoiding freezing temperatures.
Find old branches more than 1 ½ inch thick. Begin pruning from the heart of the plant instead of the outside. Cut the branch, so it’s 11 to 15 inches high. Only remove one-third of the old stems, and if needed, repeat the process next year.
3. Pruning To Control the Size of Weigela
Pruning your weigela plant to maintain its size and control its growth should be a common practice in gardening. You can cut down single branches to the desired size or thin down one-third of the oldest branches to the main trunk. If you are pruning weigela branches, cut to the point where the two branches meet. This way, you will make way for any new growth while maintaining the desired size and shape of your weigela plant.
- When to Prune: The best time to prune your weigela plant to control its size is between May and June.
Cut one-third of the old weigela branches each season using hand trimmers, hedge clippers, loppers, or pruners.
4. Pruning Weigela To Restore the Life
If you don’t have much time to devote to the art of gardening, you may find your weigela plant to be neglected and in poor shape. You will recognize these weigelas by the thick branches with little to no blooms in the spring. When something like this occurs, you may need to take drastic actions to restore your weigela plant to its full glory. The dead branches are at a higher risk of attracting pests and diseases. After the renovation prune, the plant may need more than a year to recover.
- When to Prune: Prune the plant after it blooms or in late spring if there are no healthy branches that bloom.
Prune the entire plant to around 4 inches above the soil, leaving any healthy branches. Be patient and watch your weigela plant begin to grow much stronger than before.
Conclusion
Pruning your weigela plant may have seemed much more challenging before reading this helpful article. After learning the different techniques and methods of pruning plants, we encourage you to try them out and restore the life of your weigela plant. You will notice a significant change if you begin pruning your plants regularly, as it is an enriching practice that significantly benefits your plants.
See also: How to Prune Grapevines – 3 Tips & When To Do It
Featured Image Credit: manfredrichter, Pixabay
Contents
