Old-fashioned Weigela is native to southern Russia, China and Japan.
It has collected 51 synonyms.
They are deciduous shrubs up to around 3 m high.
Arching stems can reach the ground.
Young angled green then brown stems have 4 lines of short hairs down them.
Older erect to arching grey stems give the shrub a rounded top.
The opposite leaves, up to 10 or 11 cm long are on a petiole a few mms long.
Oblong, elliptic or slightly obovate blades, with a pointed tip have small teeth.
Hairs on the lower surface are dense while the upper surface has sparse hairs.
Inflorescences are a pair of 1 (to a few) flowers terminal on short side branches.
These branches are from the previous years growth.
There may be very short to long peduncles and opposite pairs may be fused.
Peduncles and pedicels have simple hairs.
There are five 2 mm long sepals with their bases fused for half their length.
The lobes have a pointed tip and a few hairs on both surfaces.
The corolla has a funnel or bell-shaped base with 5 spreading lobes half the length of the tube.
Two lobes may be shorter forming a bilabiate corolla.
The white, pink to red corolla is around 3.5 cm long and 2.5 cm across.
There are hairs on both surfaces of the corolla and its colour may fade after fertilisation.
The 5 stamens, around 6 mm long insert inside the top of the corolla tube.
Ridges, with simple hairs run down to the base of the tube.
The pink filaments hold the dorsifixed anthers at the top of the tube.
The long narrow inferior ovary has 2 locules with a few ovules in each.
The white style has a stigma with a skirt hanging down around the edge.
Fruit are a roughly spherical to oblong capsule with seeds attached to a central placenta.
They open into 2 chambers, starting at the tip to release the small angled seeds.
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Some species plants are available but most shrubs seen are one of the nearly 200 cultivars.
W. florida cultivars can have white flowers and purplish or variegated leaves.
It, or its cultivars are commonly one (or both) parent/s of many cultivars.
Cultivars are crossed back with the parents or other cultivars or species.
Cultivars come in standard or dwarf forms with plain, purple or variegated leaves.
Corollas can be white as well as pink, red, purple and yellow.
There are some flowers with two or more colours.
J.F.
