Gargening help! Can my weigelia be saved?
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I don't have a lot of experience with weigela. I bought a shrub many years ago but it never did well. I blamed the lack of sun in my yard.
A few general observations related to the photos you posted, based on my garden experiences...
Plants with variegated leaves generally aren't as robust as their solid green leaf cousins. Also, some shurbs just have an annoying habit of sudden dieback. American cranberry bush viburnum do it like crazy. I had a beautiful shrub and after three or four years large portions of it just up and died. My neighbor planted one and it's doing the same thing. Redbud trees also do it.
I don't know if dieback is an issue with weigela, but you might look up "weigela winter dieback" or "sun scald" and see what comes up. The fact that it looked good last year but didn't leaf out on one side might be related to something that happened during the winter. Here are some things you could look at:
https://stonepostgardens.com/weigela-looks-dead-after-winter/
TBH, given that one half of the shrub has leafed out and is blooming, and the other side looks like it does, I think that side of the shrub is dead and I'm thinking you'll have to cut the dead branches to the ground and hope that you get new growth from the base.
Another note - the weigela hasn't been pruned properly over the years. It looks like the ends of the branches have been pruned to maintain the desired size. This results in witches' brooms, with all the new growth at the ends of the older branches coming up from the ground. Some of that old wood needs to come out to provide air circulation and to encourage growth from the base. Here's a guide to pruning weigela:
https://horticulture.co.uk/weigela/pruning/
I don't recognize the other thing, the invader. The red stem is distinctive, am thinking that will help identify it. The ag extension folks at the uni could probably ID it in short order and tell you what to do if it's one of those invasive pears.
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I don't have a lot of experience with weigela. I bought a shrub many years ago but it never did well. I blamed the lack of sun in my yard.
A few general observations related to the photos you posted, based on my garden experiences...
Plants with variegated leaves generally aren't as robust as their solid green leaf cousins. Also, some shurbs just have an annoying habit of sudden dieback. American cranberry bush viburnum do it like crazy. I had a beautiful shrub and after three or four years large portions of it just up and died. My neighbor planted one and it's doing the same thing. Redbud trees also do it.
I don't know if dieback is an issue with weigela, but you might look up "weigela winter dieback" or "sun scald" and see what comes up. The fact that it looked good last year but didn't leaf out on one side might be related to something that happened during the winter. Here are some things you could look at:
https://stonepostgardens.com/weigela-looks-dead-after-winter/
TBH, given that one half of the shrub has leafed out and is blooming, and the other side looks like it does, I think that side of the shrub is dead and I'm thinking you'll have to cut the dead branches to the ground and hope that you get new growth from the base.
Another note - the weigela hasn't been pruned properly over the years. It looks like the ends of the branches have been pruned to maintain the desired size. This results in witches' brooms, with all the new growth at the ends of the older branches coming up from the ground. Some of that old wood needs to come out to provide air circulation and to encourage growth from the base. Here's a guide to pruning weigela:
https://horticulture.co.uk/weigela/pruning/
I don't recognize the other thing, the invader. The red stem is distinctive, am thinking that will help identify it. The ag extension folks at the uni could probably ID it in short order and tell you what to do if it's one of those invasive pears.
Thanks for those links @wtg I googled about that the red stem and my uneducated conclusion is, it’s inconclusive
@wtg said in Gargening help! Can my weigelia be saved?:
The fact that it looked good last year but didn't leaf out on one side might be related to something that happened during the winter.
That was my original guess as well, but based on the location of the invader, I wondered if that could be choking out the roots on one side. But I wasn’t sure if that would make sense, in other words, if something is choking the roots, would it affect the whole plant or could it be localized like that.
TBH, given that one half of the shrub has leafed out and is blooming, and the other side looks like it does, I think that side of the shrub is dead and I'm thinking you'll have to cut the dead branches to the ground and hope that you get new growth from the base.
This is what I suspect to be the case, whatever the cause
Another note - the weigela hasn't been pruned properly over the years. It looks like the ends of the branches have been pruned to maintain the desired size. This results in witches' brooms, with all the new growth at the ends of the older branches coming up from the ground.
Mr SK has been trying to learn more about this kind of thing. I don’t think our hydrangea had been pruned well either, so he cut it back in the fall and it seems to be doing well at this point.
Here's a guide to pruning weigela:
Thanks!
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BTW talking with Mr SK just now about the info in those links, he said he suspects that the problem is probably from the harsh winter we had this past year, and the invader is just a coincidence.
That seems pretty likely.
It doesn’t necessarily change what we have to do though.
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I am pretty certain the invader is not the problem. A shrub the size of your weigela has a massive root system and there really isn’t any way the weed could damage it.
The only other thing that occurred to me is the downspout that looks like it drains near the weigela. I’m not super familiar with the water requirements of weigela, but I wonder if too much moisture could be the cause of the dieback.
Few homeowners and even most landscapers haven’t a clue as to what they are doing when it comes to pruning. You wouldn’t believe the massacred plants I’ve seen them leave behind in their wake. Pruning an important skill for a gardener to learn and I’m still terrified when I have to prune something, but fortunately there are lots of pruning guides and info available online.
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
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@wtg I set up this post but accidentally didn’t post it, but here it is:
Thanks for those links @wtg I googled about that the red stem and my uneducated conclusion is, it’s inconclusive
———- update from today:
So I still haven’t heard back from the Extension service yet, but Mr SK ended up cutting out all the dead branches and extracting the invader. He thinks the invader was coincidental and he thinks the dead spots were just die back from the harsh winter we had.Anyway, it looked horrible when he cut everything out and left the healthy half. I mean, it still looks horrible, but after four days, look at it now. This is yesterday:
See all the green at the bottom? That’s all new growth. In four days! Crazy.
This is what it looks like from the other side:
Mr SK said he’ll prune after the flowering season is done. We’ll have to decide how aggressively to prune it back, I need to rad about it again but probably we can do a lot to bring down the tall side without totally killing it. And hoe;fully the new growth will increase a big in height and then the whole thing won’t look so awful…
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I am pretty certain the invader is not the problem. A shrub the size of your weigela has a massive root system and there really isn’t any way the weed could damage it.
The only other thing that occurred to me is the downspout that looks like it drains near the weigela. I’m not super familiar with the water requirements of weigela, but I wonder if too much moisture could be the cause of the dieback.
Few homeowners and even most landscapers haven’t a clue as to what they are doing when it comes to pruning. You wouldn’t believe the massacred plants I’ve seen them leave behind in their wake. Pruning an important skill for a gardener to learn and I’m still terrified when I have to prune something, but fortunately there are lots of pruning guides and info available online.
@wtg said in Gargening help! Can my weigelia be saved?:
The only other thing that occurred to me is the downspout that looks like it drains near the weigela. I’m not super familiar with the water requirements of weigela, but I wonder if too much moisture could be the cause of the dieback.
BTW I meant to respond to this.
That downspout goes into the ground and has a pop-up drain out in the yard, so I don’t think it’s that. But after you posted this, I googled and it does seem that too much rain (water) is a problem. You would think that if that was it, it would affect the whole plant, so I’m guessing that’s not it. But again, what do I know.
Also, according to my googling, cutting after the blooms are done seems to be the right thing to do. I also read that they only bloom on old wood, so all the new growth this year will probably not have flowers next year. That’s ok, as long as it’s green. The leaves are quite pretty.
We’ll see if it survives!
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@wtg said in Gargening help! Can my weigelia be saved?:
The only other thing that occurred to me is the downspout that looks like it drains near the weigela. I’m not super familiar with the water requirements of weigela, but I wonder if too much moisture could be the cause of the dieback.
BTW I meant to respond to this.
That downspout goes into the ground and has a pop-up drain out in the yard, so I don’t think it’s that. But after you posted this, I googled and it does seem that too much rain (water) is a problem. You would think that if that was it, it would affect the whole plant, so I’m guessing that’s not it. But again, what do I know.
Also, according to my googling, cutting after the blooms are done seems to be the right thing to do. I also read that they only bloom on old wood, so all the new growth this year will probably not have flowers next year. That’s ok, as long as it’s green. The leaves are quite pretty.
We’ll see if it survives!
@ShiroKuro I thought the downspout might discharge farther out, but couldn't tell from the original photos. Glad it's out away from the house and the plantings.
See all the green at the bottom? That’s all new growth. In four days! Crazy.
Yup, not unexpected. I thought I saw some shoots coming up through all that dead stuff, and spring is the season when things really take off. It will be a little lopsided for a while, but hopefully it's well on its way to coming back strong!
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@ShiroKuro I thought the downspout might discharge farther out, but couldn't tell from the original photos. Glad it's out away from the house and the plantings.
See all the green at the bottom? That’s all new growth. In four days! Crazy.
Yup, not unexpected. I thought I saw some shoots coming up through all that dead stuff, and spring is the season when things really take off. It will be a little lopsided for a while, but hopefully it's well on its way to coming back strong!
