Content
Pruning weigela in spring allows you to create a unique composition and highlight the plant among many garden crops. The decorative nature of the flowering shrub will delight not only the owners of the garden plot, but also passers-by. Gardeners manage to achieve maximum beauty of the crop by competently organizing the spring pruning of weigela and the formation of its crown.
Should weigela be trimmed in spring?
Weigela is a decorative flowering shrub. It can be grown either alone or used in compositions or to form picturesque hedges. For long and lush flowering of weigela vegetation, gardeners use timely pruning.
To make the bush look aesthetically pleasing, you should follow the rules for trimming ornamental crops. For beginner gardeners, a brief algorithm of actions is presented below:
- Inspect the bush in early spring. If the tips of the branches are black, they should be removed, as this is due to freezing of the shoots in winter.
- When the buds swell, you can remove the damaged areas, retreating 1-2 cm from them. If this procedure is not done in time, rot will form in the damaged areas.
How to trim weigela correctly
Thanks to its decorative colorful inflorescences, gardeners grow weigela in their garden plots. During flowering in summer, the bush is simply strewn with fragrant flowers. As a rule, flowers appear on last year's branches. By spring, the shoots turn into smooth rods, along the entire length of which fascinating inflorescences appear. On old branches, buds can appear only at the tops of the shoots. It is better to remove these branches so that the crown is not so dense.
Weigela is a very hardy plant, so it treats thinning the bush in the same way as lilac. The crop can be cut during the entire growing season. The procedure does not provoke flowering weigela disease; pruning only activates the appearance of new shoots. The gardener trims the bush at a time convenient for himself.
Recommended timing
In the summer season, the ornamental shrub is completely covered with dense foliage. Therefore, it is difficult to decide which branches should be cut off completely and which ones should only be shortened.
In principle, crown cleaning can be carried out both in spring and summer. The culture is extremely resistant to molding. In September-October, only sanitary shortening of branches is carried out. In winter, cutting the bush is not recommended, as this can lead to freezing or disease.
To correctly calculate the time for pruning weigela, it is necessary to know exactly the age of the ornamental crop and its varietal characteristics.For example, it is not customary to shorten dwarf species too much; their branches are not long anyway. It will be enough to use regular sanitary pruning. In the video you can see how weigela is trimmed:
Preparation of tools and materials
Garden vegetation requires proper attention and care. If you don’t take care of your garden, don’t trim the crown in a timely manner, and don’t remove broken or diseased branches, then it can soon turn into an impenetrable jungle.
Shrubs or fruit trees are periodically pruned. For this, gardeners use special tools and devices. One lopper or saw will not be enough. Today the market presents many options for the necessary gardening tools.
For full-fledged work on a personal plot, it is recommended to purchase frequently used household tools, such as a hedge trimmer, garden shears, pruning shears or a file.
How to prune weigela correctly in spring
The crown is easier to form from young, one-year-old shoots. From these it will be easiest to create a shrub of any geometric shape, for example, in the form of a pyramid, ball, cube.
It is important to keep the bush healthy. Every spring it is carefully inspected, and if frozen or disease-damaged branches are visible, these shoots are cut off. Even if you have to cut off a lot of branches, over the summer the bush will have time to branch out and take its usual shape.
How to prune weigela in the summer after flowering
An adult weigela shrub requires annual modeling pruning to maintain the selected shape. It can be spherical, pyramidal or square.As a rule, formative pruning of the bush is carried out in the summer, when the weigela is about to bloom for the second time.
Shoots are trimmed to 1/3 of their length. It is necessary for the plant to have time to grow more young shoots, on which flowering will recur abundantly. After cutting, the weigela is fed with fertilizer. It could be potassium sulfate. It will not be superfluous to mulch the tree trunk circle.
How to form weigela shrubs annually
The crown of the shrub is quite large in size. To keep it in neat shape, you need to follow a cutting plan: promptly remove damaged and old pagons, trim new growth.
Gardeners recommend trimming the crown twice during the entire growing season.
- Primary pruning in the spring before foliage appears. Remove dead, frozen or dried shoots.
- Secondary pruning is carried out after abundant flowering to give the bush a little rest. You can remove branches that are 2-3 years old to rejuvenate the weigela.
Caring for weigela after pruning
After removing excess branches, the cut sites must be lubricated with garden varnish to prevent infection and to speed up the healing process. In early spring and at the end of the summer season, the shrub needs to be fed with complex fertilizers.
Choose a composition that contains potassium. It helps strengthen the branches. From organic matter, it is acceptable to use mullein in diluted form. The proportions are as follows: water – 9 parts, rotted mullein – 1 part. You need to pour 8-10 liters of the prepared mixture under the bush. It is better not to use nitrogen, as it can cause rot on the wood.
Moisture is also important for shrubs.Water the weigela when the top layer of soil dries. Before the onset of winter, it is useful to water the bush abundantly. In winter, moisture will prevent the root system from freezing.
Mulching is important at any time. You can use old spruce needles and chopped straw. They will not allow moisture to evaporate quickly from the soil. It is important to ensure that the mulch does not adhere closely to the trunk, as this can cause rot.
Conclusion
Pruning weigela in spring is necessary to maintain the aesthetic appearance of the garden composition. Caring for it is quite simple, so even an inexperienced gardener can grow the crop. The shrub has the amazing ability to quickly grow leaf mass, regardless of the methods and volumes of pruning. The heat-loving plant will delight its owners with long-term flowering.
