very mature weigelia

I inherited this weigela when we purchased our home in 2001. It's beautiful in full bloom, but it's huge and sprawls out into the driveway. Last summer sometime after it finished blooming we cut it down to about six inches (radical renovation) and here is what it looks like this year! It has a large number of canes, old and new. I've tried cutting back some of the canes in past years, and I've also tried to shorten some of them. When I do that, they tend to branch further from the spot of the cut.

Any ideas on how to control this more effectively so that it doesn't crowd my driveway?

This message was edited Jun 18, 2006 12:14 AM

I don't know much about Weigela's, but I had a similar problem with Oleanders that were planted without taking into account their full-grown size, and no matter how I pruned them they always ended up right back at 8-10 ft. I tried shortening canes, which just stimulated growth and made the plant even bigger, then after that I stuck with thinning out canes, removing some of the oldest ones each year. Unfortunately that doesn't reduce the overall size of the plant, but it did help with flowering. Some shrubs like Buxus that are sheared into hedges can be kept the size you want with diligent pruning, but a lot of shrubs want to be the size they want to be and trying to get them to be something signficantly smaller than that just isn't going to work, or you're going to end up having to prune it multiple times during the year but you'll probably end up losing the flowers in the process.

ecrane, hearing that about your oleanders is good news to me. I planted some for privacy so I want them to become large.

Yes, they can get pretty big. Not sure how fast they grow, I inherited mine when they were already pretty big.

I planted mine out of 1 gallon containers about 2 months ago, they have grown about a foot.

That's what I'm afraid of. It only blooms once, although it's quite stunning and absolutely full of blooms when it does. After that it's just sort of there. Maybe I'll try thinning out the canes which overhang the driveway the most. Amazing bush though, to come back so big after being cut down like that.

Thanks

For many shrubs pruning them pretty much to the ground can be a great way to rejuvenate them if they've gotten too overgrown. Doesn't work for all shrubs though so if you're thinking of trying it on anything else I would either ask people's advice here or do some searching to see if it'll work for that particular plant.

IN the spring, drive a shovel around the plant at 4 equidistant places (when dormant - meaning late spring) or when it first starts growing that would be fine too, and this root pruning will force the plant to spend time and energy producing more roots than normal thus slowing down the bud growth. Now that works great with dwarf-growing plants and the like, but probably won't control a weigelia all that well; still worth trying however. The other option you have, which is a big project, is too dig up the entire thing and drive around the sides of that rootball forming a smaller root system and simply replant that - which might be your best option now that I'm thinking about things. Do it all in the spring - dig - shape the rootball - leave a balanced amount of growth above for what you remove below, and replant. That's how I see it.

Also, let it become woody again. Don't hack it low each year. Only drive a shovel around the roots and eventually you'll have the size you're looking for and can keep it at that size with judicious pruning. Looking at your photo or photos - whichever it was - it also looks to me like staking a few 5 or 10 branches to control the floppy-look might be necessary. Ultimately however, what you're looking for is a shape that's desirable to you and something you can keep that way for a long time. Think of the shrub like a bonsai or a division done on perennials to control growth. It certainly won't ever end, but you can keep it in check fairly well using common sense from here on out.

You probably think I'm crazy... well, that's how I see it.

Good luck and water the living gangies out of it the day before doing any of the transplanting work. Also, keep it well watered if you choose to do this work now - otherwise wait till next spring (the best time) when the "plants" are dormant.

Regards,

Dax

P.s. I hope I didn't forget anything.