WEIGELAS are easy-to-grow garden shrubs that we tend to take for granted. Hardy and dependable, vigorous and pest-free, their pendulous, bell-shaped flowers are a leading feature of millions of gardens in early summer. Even in that season of floral luxuriance, weigelas stand out for their beauty and abundance. And bees love them.
The genus is named after a Pomeranian doctor, Christian von Weigel (1748–1831), who was personal physician to the King of Sweden. He was German, so the common English pro-nunciation (‘Why-jeal-ia’) is incorrect, as is our mangling of many German and French plant names, such as and . Botanists cannot agree on how many weigela species there are—estimates range from 10–40, all from the Far East, but, to unbotanical eyes, most of them look rather similar. Gor-geous , however, is distinct because its flowers are pale yellow, rather than pink, and some of
