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It is impossible to arrange a suburban garden plot without ornamental flowering shrubs. And one of the most popular plants among landscape designers is deciduous weigela, with which you can create delightful compositions. The variety of colors, abundant flowering and unpretentiousness are the main advantages of the culture. Photos of weigela in landscape design, video material and a detailed description of the features of its use in the landscape will allow everyone to create a unique atmosphere in their own personal plot.
What does weigela combine with in landscape design?
Unpretentious weigela in garden landscape design is combined with many plants, shading and complementing the decorative effect of the latter. It opens up a huge field for creativity, allowing you to create exclusive landscape compositions. Most often, designers combine it:
- with berry yew;
- juniper and other conifers;
- rhododendrons;
- lilac;
- hydrangea;
- spirea;
- ornamental cereals and herbs.
When creating compositions with weigela, it is worth taking into account the growth and flowering time of all participants in the mix border.Several types of plants for landscape design with different flowering periods will allow you to organize a living corner - changing its shades, height and volume. With proper organization of the composition and selection of plants in landscape design, they create unique closed mini-spaces, the so-called “green rooms”, which are true decorations of the garden.
How to compose compositions depending on the type and variety of weigela
The variety of weigela varieties allows you to select individual types for landscape design and intelligently combine them in color and height. The flowers of the plant are white, purple, lilac or yellow. But interest in the culture is caused not only by the gorgeous flowering, but by the decorativeness of the foliage of most varieties. Low-growing varieties are used to create flower beds, mix borders, alpine slides or miniature hedges. Taller ones are used in group plantings, for decorating paths and alleys, and for decorating unattractive places.
Weigela Minor Black in landscape design:
A group planting of the same or different varieties of weigela, in the amount of 3 - 4 pieces, looks unusually beautiful. But owners of large plots can afford such large-scale plantings.
A monogroup of low-growing varieties of Weigel Carnival, Alexandra, Nana Variegata and Bristol Ruby will look harmonious. A beautifully flowering shrub in a garden landscape design can also decorate the wall of a house with its luxury in the company of evergreens and flower groups in the foreground. Tall varieties look gorgeous in single plantings on a lawn, in the foreground among conifers, or as a hedge when planted along the perimeter of the site.
Good neighbors for large weigela will be coniferous and evergreen tree species, various flower crops that bloom at different times.
Low-growing varieties of perennials can be planted next to ornamental grasses, succulents used in rock gardens and rockeries, and herbaceous plants. The shrub takes root well next to Japanese quince, felt cherry, mock orange, spirea, cotoneaster, and forsythia. However, a brightly blooming weigela will not look good together with plants that are also intensively flowering. Although in this case, you can correctly compose a composition so that cultures do not interrupt the brightness and beauty of each other.
Features of using weigela in the garden landscape
The photo below clearly shows powerful weigela bushes in garden landscape design, which can reach a height of 2.5 meters. During flowering, charming bell flowers appear in the leaf axils, which abundantly shower the branches of the bush.
A blooming crop determines the architecture of the landscape and makes it possible to divide the space into separate zones, decorate unsightly places and create the necessary volume of a garden composition.
It is weigela that plays the role of a connecting link between low-growing plants and tall trees. In landscape design, it is used as an independent element or a chic background for other plants. It is often used to create impressive alleys, thereby emphasizing the sophistication of the garden landscape. With the help of weigela, you can form mixed or homogeneous groups of garden plantings. It also looks impressive as a tapeworm or in rocky gardens and alpine slides.
Weigela hedge
Weigela is most often used in landscape design to create indoor hedges, which amaze with their luxurious flowering and delicate, romantic fragrance. When combined, varieties of different colors form delightful dividing strips in the garden, delimiting individual zones - terraces, living corners, platforms, as well as highlighting paths.
An even more interesting option for a hedge is a combination of different flowering species - lilac, mock orange and weigela. By selecting shrubs according to the timing of flower blooming, you can organize a hedge of continuous flowering and stunningly beautiful garden landscape design.
Seedlings of tall shrubs for hedges are planted at a distance of 2.5 m from each other, for medium-sized ones - at 1.7 - 1.8 m, for dwarf shrubs, 80 cm will be enough. Abundant, lush flowering and, at the same time, a neat appearance of the hedge can be achieved through regular pruning. It is carried out in early spring and consists of several stages:
- in the first year: leave short shoots - up to 15 - 20 cm long;
- second year: similar pruning;
- third and all subsequent ones: cutting branches to half their length.
For hedges, the best choice is the low-growing flowering weigela varieties Nana Variegata and Aurea, and the tall Korean variety, reaching a height of 2.5 m, capable of blooming again in late summer - early autumn.
Weigela in compositions
In mix borders, which can be decorated in a natural or simple style, weigela in garden landscape design looks great with flowering perennials and tree and shrub groups.You can combine it with the following herbaceous crops:
- decorative bows;
- poppies;
- cinquefoil;
- soapwort;
- tall grasses and cereals - sedge, miscanthus.
The blooming splendor of weigela is successfully set off by herbaceous crops: those that do not bloom or those that bloom dimly. In terms of shades, it is good to combine it with evergreen shrubs and trees or with yellow leaves. This:
- cypress plants;
- juniper bluish or green in color;
- thuja
In garden compositions, which are a bright spot in landscape design, weigela goes well with barberry, cotoneaster or Japanese quince. For mix-borderers, it is advisable to use low-growing varieties that will look luxurious with hyacinths and dwarf irises.
Rules for care and pruning for best results
To grow a magnificent weigela in the garden and create original compositions of landscape garden design, it is enough to know about its features and adhere to the following rules:
- this is a light-loving plant that cannot tolerate even the slightest shadow, so the place for it should be sunny, but protected from the wind;
- for the winter it is necessary to take care of shelter;
- ornamental shrubs develop well on neutral soils; it is advisable to reduce the acidity of the soil using dolomite flour or lime;
- The crop does not tolerate stagnant moisture, so heavy soils must be diluted with sand and turfy, fertile soil;
- The landscape of the garden during the flowering of weigela will delight you with its attractiveness for a long time if the plant is provided with regular, abundant watering;
- when planting seedlings, drainage from broken brick, expanded clay or gravel is required;
- organic fertilizing can be done when planting bushes by adding phosphorus-potassium fertilizers to the holes;
- periodically loosen and weed the tree trunk circle.
Another important step in caring for weigela is pruning. In the spring, it is necessary to carry out sanitary pruning with the removal of frozen, dry and damaged branches. In autumn – formative. Anti-aging pruning is required for the plant when it reaches the age of 4 - 5 years. In the future, it is repeated every 3 years. You can bring a mature weigela back to life if you completely cut off all the branches.
Useful tips for gardeners can be found in the video:
Conclusion
A photo of weigela in landscape design clearly demonstrates its plasticity, which makes it possible to use the bush to design compositions in a variety of styles. In luxurious flowering, weigela has no equal, remaining unpretentious in care. The correct selection of varieties, depending on climatic conditions, will eliminate the risk of failure in creative experiments when creating a unique landscape design. Useful tips for gardeners can be found in this video
