Welcome back guys, Today I am back with Everything to know about midnight wine weigela care. In our previous post, we have discussed how to grow Midnight wine weigela, you can obviously check that first. Midnight Weigela is probably the shortest member of this family. It has a beautiful round foliage structure. It looks unique with its bright Burgundy, reddish-purple leaves. The flowers are pink that gives a fine contrast to the foliage color. You can easily grow these plants in USDA hardiness zones 4 through 8. Caring for a midnight wine weigela plant is quite easy. You just need to feed this plant and time and keep it clean and hydrated. Keep reading to know more about Midnight wine care.
Check out my previous post: How to Transplant Gray Dogwood Shrub?
How to Care for Midnight Wine Weigela?
Midnight wine weigela is the smallest of all in the growing with just 1.5 feet high and 2 feet spread. It is compact and requires very little space as compared to any big weigela variety. Similarly, the plant also needs less care due to its smaller size.
Moreover, every plant has its specific needs. Care for any plant simply means understanding and fulfilling all its basic requirements. If the plant has everything that it actually needs. Then this is the best care for the plant.
Therefore you have to fulfill all the necessities of a midnight wine weigela plant in order to keep it healthy. You have to feed the plant with proper nutrition. Keep it clean and free from pests and diseases. Finally, always keep the soil and roots hydrated as much as it requires. Just don’t overdo anything to care for your weigela plant. Over is always the opposite of better especially in gardening.
Check out: How to Care for Minuet Weigela Plant?
What are the basic needs of the Midnight Wine Weigela Plant?
- Healthy soil. The midnight wine weigela plant requires soft well-drained soil. The soil must be acidic to slightly basic. Although the ideal soil ph for the Weigela plant is below 6.8Ph i.e. slightly or moderately acidic soil.
- Proper Sunlight. The midnight wine weigela plant requires 4 to 8 hours of direct bright sunlight in the spring season. Spring is the bloom time of weigela. So light should be adequate to keep it warm and awake for bud formation. This plant can survive in low sunlight conditions but the flowering will reduce accordingly.
- Enough Moisture. These dwarf weigela plants don’t require too much water. Only keep the soil moist to hydrate the roots and avoid any waterlogging. You may require extra water during hot summer days or the flowering season.
- Deadheading during Season. You must keep the plant clean by removing dead flowers and branches. Deadheading is especially required during and after the flowering season of midnight wine weigela. This will keep the pests away and encourage more flowering.
- Essential pruning before and after the season. Cutting off green healthy stems and branches just to encourage new branch growth is called pruning. Pruning is important to keep the plant clean and healthy. It has a big advantage that the plant becomes bushy. More branches will eventually lead to more blooms. Ultimately it enhances the looks of the midnight weigela plant. Always use clean sterilized shear or pruner.
Midnight Wine Weigela Care
- Start with selecting a good bight location for your midnight wine weigela plant. Caring for any plant starts with its growth location and environment. Therefore make sure the spot you choose gets at least 4 to 8 hours of sunlight. The open garden area on the side of the pathway is ideal to row midnight wine variety of dwarf weigela plants.
- Use healthy nutrition-rich soil for your weigela plants. You can simply dig holes for midnight wine and fill it with organic compost after plantation. The compost will keep the ph low and nourish the plant for a couple of months. A 50-50 mix of soil with compost is sufficient to keep the weigela plant healthy.
- Feed the midnight wine weigela with a mixture of NPK 16:16:16 or any balanced fertilizer, compost, bonemeal, and 2 spoons of fine wood ash every 15 days during the growth period. Fertilize only once in 50 days interval after blooming ends.
- Water abundantly during the blooming phase. Always let the soil dry a bit before the next spill. Resist your temptation for frequent watering. This is essential to keep the plants safe from root rot disease.
- Deadhead is the midnight wine weigela plant throughout the growth period. Remove all the spend dead flowers and branches to avoid pest attacks. It will enhance the growth and beauty of the plant by keeping it always healthy and clean.
- Finally, prune the weigela plant in early to late winter fall. You can prune in early spring, it is effective but can reduce the overall bloom due to less availability of mature branches. This plant just as most of the weigela varieties can only bloom in old mature branches. Once the flowering is over, cut off 2/3rd of the old mature branches to encourage new healthy growth during fall.
Can Overwatering kill Midnight Wine Weigela?
One important garden care tip is to never overwater any plant. Plants can survive little wilt due to underwatering but can definitely die due to excess moisture around the roots.
Therefore Always avoid overwatering your midnight wine weigela. Keep in mind Overwatering can cause root rot that can definitely kill Midnight Wine Weigela plants.
Also read: How is Over Irrigation Damaging the soil?
Should Midnight Wine weigela be cut back in the fall?
Yes, you should cut back midnight wine weigela in the fall. In fact, early fall to mid-winter is the ideal time to prune the weigela plants. Pruning during this stage will allow the midnight wine dwarf weigela enough time to develop new healthy branches. Also, these branches will mature enough to develop buds during spring the following year. This can save you essential growth and development time for new blooming branches.
You can also prune or cut bac midnight weigela in early spring. But this can result in lesser blooms due to fewer mature branches to develop new buds.
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Does Midnight Wine weigela need pruning?
Yes, definitely Midnight wine weigela needs regular pruning. Although the amount of pruning may differ from other weigela plants due to its smaller size. You may consider the size to establish before pruning. Also pruning is essential to encourage bushy foliage.
So you must prune your midnight wine weigela every year in mid-winter to early spring but in a very controlled manner. Only prune half or 2/3rd of old mature branch leaving a few to continue growth.
Why does my Midnight Wine weigela look dead?
Sometimes your midnight wine weigela may look dead despite all care techniques. There are potentially many reasons that can cause this situation. You should check these and make sure to handle them properly in time.
- Underwatering or overwatering. Both these situations are harmful to your plants but hardy plants like weigela can survive twice many days without water than overwatering. Simply 2 to 3 days of waterlogging or soggy soil can kill the plant.
- Very low or too high Ph of the soil. Sometimes any change in the ph of the soil can kill the plants instantly. Although midnight weigela wine can survive in slightly alkaline to moderately acidic soil. Yet any exceed in the range of 5 to 7.5 ph can kill this plant.
- Pests and diseases can also kill the weigela plants. Although midnight wine weigela is naturally strong and protected from common pests and diseases. Still, during heavy humidity and prolonged moisture, some pests like aphids and whiteflies can attack and kill the plant.
- Scarcity of nutrition can also kill plants. Midnight weigela can survive in any type of soil. But the soil must be healthy and nutritious. Sometimes scarcity of essential nutrition can damage and eventually kill the weigela plants.
- Low or Too much sunlight, both are dangerous. Midnight wine weigela ‘Elvera’ can not survive in sunlight less than 3 hours or more than 8 hours every day. Sunlight is directly related to temperature. So too high or very low temperatures both are dangerous for midnight wine weigela plants.
When can you cut back a Midnight Wine weigela?
You can cut back a midnight wine weigela in early fall till early spring every year. Early pruning will definitely help in developing enough mature branches to bear new pink blooms.
You can also prune the weigela plants in summer just after the end of the blooming season. This will give enough time for the plant to grow back again next spring.
How do you winterize Midnight Wine weigela?
Winterizing midnight wine weigela is important and essential to keep the pant safe from harsh cold winter. The best way to winterize any plant is by keeping it indoors safe from frost. But this is not always possible. Only if your plant is growing in a container then you can move it inside.
Otherwise Mulching heavily is the only best available option to save the midnight wine from cold winter. You should use organic mulch like rice husk, wheat straw, cocopeat, paper clipping, grass clipping, sawdust, or wood chips. These are eco-friendly and decomposes to feed the midnight wine weigela plants. It will also keep the soil ph low to the essential limits of weigela plants.
Final Words
There is soo much to say about these beautiful dwarf weigela varieties. It is not possible to pour everything out here still I have tried my best to explain the facts and needs. If you find this helpful then give us applause by sharing or simply write it down in the comment box.
I’ll be back with another interesting post. Till then keep reading keep gardening!