@Silver surfer I know what you mean! Your photos have great focus and are so helpful and inspiring. You must have a great library! I am sorry I fluffed up your handle on previous post...yes, very relevant, thankyou!
Sorry to witness the demise of the forum. 😥😥😥😡😡😡I am Spartacus
I think deciduous flowering shrubs in general aren't fashionable just now. It seems to be all about evergreens,
tropical-looking things, spiky things and so on.
I've two Weigelas (I pronounce it the same as @Fairygirl - wye-jee-la with the emphasis on the jee) but I forget the variety names. One has dark pink flowers and purple foliage, the other has pale pink flowers and variegated foliage. The dark one is proving to be pretty slow-growing.
They're often spoiled (in my view) by being clipped into blobs. I prune them by taking out any dead bits, plus a few of the oldest branches right back to the base so they have long arching branches.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
I think that's part of the problem @JennyJ. Gardens are now 'fashionable' in the same way as clothes and food etc. It's daft. Nothing wrong with new varieties of any plant, of course there isn't, but when you feel something's being pushed as the new 'must have', and replacing other, just as valid, and valuable plants, that's not good IMO. I wonder if it's to appeal to new gardeners - here's what you should have. In the same way that colours/fashions in homes become dated very quickly now, and some people feel they have to change everything around, so the garden has to match up to that ideal too. Or am I cynical?
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
@Fairygirl you're no more cynical than I am . Generally I have what I like (clothes, interiors, plants...) regardless of whether it's fashionable or what anyone else might think, but sometimes what's available is limited to what's "in".
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
I have a hate thing with the whole idea of fashion in gardening. A good plant will always remain a good plant. Weigelas are not my favourite, possibly because of the easily-propagated, inferior forms that used to be everywhere.
Too late for me now, I've gone down the rhododebdron, azalea, camellia road.
As for pronunciation. One of the drawbacks of internet forums is that we don't talk to real people but only see words written. I have today stopped calling them "weigel i a". And spelling them that way too. I have an evergreen azalea "Vuyk's Rosy-Red". As I can speak Dutch, I am confident in my way of pronouncing. But most people, including specialists, avoid actually saying it. I bought it from Reuthe's, probably Dutch,so: "er", but if German: "oy", or if pronounced as Engish: "oo".
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
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Nothing wrong with new varieties of any plant, of course there isn't, but when you feel something's being pushed as the new 'must have', and replacing other, just as valid, and valuable plants, that's not good IMO.
I wonder if it's to appeal to new gardeners - here's what you should have. In the same way that colours/fashions in homes become dated very quickly now, and some people feel they have to change everything around, so the garden has to match up to that ideal too.
Or am I cynical?
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Too late for me now, I've gone down the rhododebdron, azalea, camellia road.
As for pronunciation. One of the drawbacks of internet forums is that we don't talk to real people but only see words written. I have today stopped calling them "weigel i a". And spelling them that way too.
I have an evergreen azalea "Vuyk's Rosy-Red". As I can speak Dutch, I am confident in my way of pronouncing. But most people, including specialists, avoid actually saying it. I bought it from Reuthe's, probably Dutch,so: "er", but if German: "oy", or if pronounced as Engish: "oo".
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."