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Weigela japonica Thunb.

Modern name

Weigela japonica Thunb.

Synonyms

Diervilla japonica (Thunb.) DC.

A deciduous shrub, 6 to 9 ft high; young shoots nearly glabrous. Leaves oval or ovate, 2 to 4 in. long, about half as wide, toothed, long and taper-pointed, densely felted with pale down beneath, slightly hairy above; stalk 14 in. or less long, bristly on the edges. Flowers mostly in threes, terminal and in the leaf-axils of short side twigs, forming a leafy panicle 3 to 5 in. long. Corolla between funnel- and bell-shaped, 1 to 114 in. long, less in width, rather downy outside; pale rose at first, changing to carmine. Calyx-lobes linear, more or less downy.

Native of Japan; introduced to the USA in 1892 and to Britain soon afterwards. It is allied to W. floribunda, which it resembles in having the calyx divided to the base into linear lobes and in the often downy outer surface of the corolla, but the down on the undersurface of the leaves is more velvety and the flowers differ much in colour from the almost blood-red ones of W. floribunda.

var. sinica (Rehd.) Bailey Diervilla japonica var. sinica Rehd. – Taller, to 20 ft. Leaves downy beneath all over the blade, longer-stalked. Corolla tubular at the base, pale pink. Ovary densely downy. Introduced by Wilson from W. Hupeh, China, in 1908, but uncommon in this country.

W. hortensis (Sieb. & Zucc.) K. Koch Diervilla hortensis Sieb. & Zucc.; Diervilla japonica var. hortensis (Sieb. & Zucc.) Maxim.; W. japonica sens. Miq., not Thunb. – Allied to W. japonica, but with the leaves velvety and almost white beneath, the corolla glabrous outside. Described by Siebold and Zuccarini from Japanese garden plants with deep red (typically) or white flowers (W. hortensis f. albiflora (Sieb. & Zucc.) Rehd.). They surmised that it was an importation from China or Korea, though it is in fact a Japanese native.

This species is now mainly represented in cultivation by ‘Nivea’, with pure white flowers, introduced to Europe from Japan early in the 1860s and to Britain well before 1878 (W. hortensis nivea Bonard; W. nivea Carr.; W. h. f. albiflora (Sieb. & Zucc.) Rehd., at least in part). ‘Nivea’ is one of the finest of the weigelas. It received a First Class Certificate in 1891. The typical red-flowered state of W. hortensis is now uncommon but had reached Europe by the 1870s. Both this and ‘Nivea’ were used in the breeding of the present garden race of weigelas.


Genus

Weigela

Other species in the genus