Today I got my order, and the weigela is... green. Decidedly, definitely green with a few spots of quite pale purple shading.

So, what can I expect? Is this it? Did the camera lie? (I thought it never did ;) ) Will the leaves get darker and turn that nice deep purple? If so, how long? Does it depend on sun exposure? Should I bother planting this or will it not even contrast enough with the chartreuse foliage to even bother. Gotta say I'm pretty disappointed. Guess I should have done my homework a bit more before this impulse buy!

Thanks!
Dee

I don't order from Bluestone since they went to the coir pots but they always stood by their plants back when I did. I'd contact them about yours, Dee.

I didn't do a search BEFORE buying (shame on me, I guess) but I have to admit that even if I HAD, since the majority of the hits in the search show dark purple - or even mid-dark purple - I would have assumed the green-leaved photos in the search results were just those odd photos/hits that show up in any search. You know, like when you google images of say, Johnny Depp, and invariably there is some old man or funny-looking geek who is definitely NOT Johnny Depp, but comes up in the results anyway because somewhere in the description of the photo is the word "Johnny", lol.

Hmm, I don't know what to do yet. If these plants will indeed darken, I will keep them. If they will flip-flop back and forth on a regular basis (light in spring, darker later, etc.) they won't really work that well for what I need), and if it is indeed dependent on light, well, this is a half-sun, half shade spot, so they might not work after all.

I am very disappointed. I've been looking for a plant for this bed for some time - my heuchera Midnight Rose in this spot does not hold it's dark color well enough - and I admit I jumped on this little weigela right away, I was so excited. Like I said, should have done a bit more homework. Maybe I'll pot them up and see what they do before putting them in the ground in this spot.

Thanks for the input. Much appreciated!

Dee

I also wanted to suggest there is a new Ninebark out that is small. I think it has 'Tiny' in it's name? Also would an annual work for you? I was thinking of adding more dark foliage with dark sweet potato vine. I had Midnight Rose Heuchera in half sun and it has completely disappeared. I think it is my dry heavier soil.

Anyway, I'll post a photo later… :-)

The new Ninebark that is out is called 'Tiny Wine' if you want to use Google images to take a look at it.

It's pretty wet and dark out there right now for a photo, but I did measure mine so you could understand how small these plants are. I had one on the East side of a full sun bed and the second one on the West side. The East side plant now measures 9 inches tall. Pretty small. And the one in the West was not growing as well and it is less than 5 inches tall. Planted and not disturbed since 2011. I'm actually giving it this year to do something more than it's been doing to decide what I want to do with it.

camp, I've looked into berberis but as PM2 mentioned, they are invasive and either recently banned in the state I live in or about to be. There is a list of supposedly "not as invasive" cultivars but in doing research I find that some say that even those are not good to plant. I can't tell you how many hundreds of times I have driven by beautiful specimens of them and wished I could just bring myself to plant them, but I can't.

PM2, I'm looking at the ninebark Tiny Wine. A bit bigger than I need, but I may pick one up for a different spot in this bed.

I can't tell you how long I've been looking for something for this spot. I just can't seem to find something that will really work. I thought that having boxwoods, hollies, and the heucheras would be enough contrast, but the boxwoods have turned out to be disappointingly pale green, and the heucheras as I mentioned don't hold their color. The hollies are a pretty good contrast but not enough of it. I don't even care about blooms (as a matter of fact I'd prefer no blooms) but just want that purple foliage.

This bed is actually at a friend's house, and she really loves the chartreuse we have in there (spirea Gold Mounds, hakone grass, some eunonymoush Gold Splash, and Captain Kirk hostas) and I don't think she feels the urgent need for some contrast as I do, which I guess is good - hey, she's very happy with the bed. But I really feel it needs something to make it pop. All the greens seem to be the same (rhodies and hydrangeas, azaleas, roses, and ilex glabra also in the bed).

Ideally, I'd have an evergreen deep purple shrub (everpurple? lol), but at this point I may have to settle for something either reddish or even just a dark green. I think the ninebark may do well in the back of the border, and I may just have to live with the heucheras. I saw an annual in another thread recently where someone was looking for something similar to me, and it was very nice (can't remember off the top of my head) but my friend is not a gardener and so a perennial would be better than something she has to replant every year.

The search continues, I guess. In the meantime, I'll pot up the weigelas and see how they do. One side of the bed is sunnier than the other (foundation bed - front door in the center) so maybe the weigelas will work there and we'll keep the heucheras in the shadier part. We'lll see. I guess it's a work in progress - like all gardens!

Thank you all so much for your input. I'll let you know how things turn out!

Dee

Off the top of my head, I haven't thought of something with purple foliage. These Weigela are brown and so are the Ninebarks. I hope you find something that works for you.

The sun came out finally. :-) Here's a photo as it looks today…. this is the 9 inch tall 'Midnight Wine'.

Bought on clearance..pitiful and half dead last year. Really surprised it survived the brutal winter.

Thanks PM2 and lilsprout for the photos. Yes, everything does seem more brown/reddish than purplish, but that may work. Anythiing but more green, lol! PM2, the height on the weigela doesn't bother me - I have the heucheras there now and they (the foliage at least) doesn't get much higher than your nine-inch weigela! This bed is a bit unusual in that the house sits lower than street level. The front yard is not very big, but dips down like the side of a bowl to the house, so sometimes it's hard to see things in the bed. However, this is for the front of the bed so anything between a foot and two feet is good.

I guess I am going to go back to the drawing board and do more research, and perhaps broaden my color palette! Campanula, thanks for the recommendation of angelicas. I am not too familiar with them so I will look into them as well.

Dee

Dee, that sounds like a challenging site to garden in, if the land slopes down below street level in a bowl shape to the house. I wonder if they have drainage issues and water running down toward the house?

I was just thinking of another thread, where Green_go posted a photo of a Weigela 'Shining Sensation' that she described as purple foliage. I can't think of any 'ever purple' shrub. :-)

You know, this garden is very interesting. The soil there is naturally really good soil. I hardly amended it. She had a few hostas in front, and two hollies, which are still there. I brought the beds (one on either side of the door) out about 6 more feet, removed the grass, and really did very little to amend it. Things grow like crazy there. I honestly don't understand it, lol.

And it gets morning sun, but it has got to be the hottest morning sun I ever felt in my life! Even with some morning shade from two cherry trees in the front yard. I like to garden early, and even then, the sun is so darn hot. I often wonder if it's because of that slope, and that maybe the heat kind of "collects" in front of the house. There are not really any water issues in the house because the land continues to slope down on either side of the house to the back yard, although I think that because the house is there in mid-slope, the foundation bed keeps a nice moisture level; it's like the house stops just enough water to keep those foundation beds just right.

The stuff I planted for her grows amazingly well here. We actually had to remove some spireas because they are getting to be more than six feet across (so much for the 3-4 feet wide stuff!) and I've brought the beds out farther twice in two years and moved things away from each other. The boxwoods are growing well, the hostas are large, the hakone is doing great, and despite the half day sun things are thriving - I don't really know what's up, but it makes me look like a great gardener, lol!

My only beef with the garden is that it's all roughly the same shade of green. There are varying textures, which is good - the hakone, the hostas, the spirea, heuchera, etc. - but I really feel it needs that contrast, more than the heucheras provide. Not a lot of bloom right in front. The bed continues along the driveway on one side and there are roses, iris, azalea, a rhodie, a hydrangea, etc., so there is blooming there to change things up and add interest, but right in front of the house, other than a few (not enough, IMO) annuals we tuck in each year, there's not much other color.

Thanks for the suggestion of Shining Sensation. It is too big for this spot though. Maybe in the back of the border along the driveway....

Dee

Hmm, funny but no, I haven't considered Britt-Marie... I guess I think of this as more of a bog garden plant, having put one in such a situation. As you see from my post above, this site, while nowhere near "wet", does seem to not need much extra water. Britt Marie is a bit bigger than what I wanted, but, worth looking into.

Honestly, if it weren't for winter interest right near the front door, I'd remove the boxwoods and put a Britt Marie right in their spot! But I feel I should leave something evergreen there, and whatever I end up putting in would therefore go in right in front of the boxwoods. Might not be a bad thing to hide the boxwoods til winter, when we need them, lol!

Thanks for the suggestions!

Dee

My problem is I bought these for a specific location, which is half sun / half shade, so I don't know if that is enough sun to bring out the color I expected from the photo which prompted me to buy them.

Dee

No, Shining Sensation does not die to the ground - it is actually quiet hardy.

That sounds like a very interesting garden. None of the negative effects of the slope that you would think and evidently all positives. I would imagine it is a different look out the front of the house at the garden too if it rises in front of you, while the back of the house continues to slope down and perhaps has a nice elevated view.

So all the same shade of green? But with the golds of Hakone and Spirea and are some of the Hostas variegated and gold? I do understand your dislike of all the same shade of green. I am often looking for a dark, dark green, to break up some of the mid green tones. And I like the golds and the variegated to break things up. The browns and burgundy leaves, I always think are going to add to the mix for interest, but I’m not always happy with it, so I don’t have a lot of it.

Hi, Thyme2 :-) You’re lucky that you have some moist spots on your property. Mine really doesn’t have a one. Tree root zones and completely level with no low spots. So, there are a lot of plants that prefer moisture that I just skip over in a catalog.

GreenGo, I’ve had the same experience with Midnight Wine this year. I wasn’t sure they were coming back either.

I had not heard of ‘Shining Sensation’ before seeing your photo on another thread. It’s a nice color and size. Do you shape them round and prune them a lot? Was there a reason you shovel pruned ‘Wine and Roses’?

I know it sounds weird that I list all those chartreuse-foliaged plants and then say that the greens are all the same. Obviously, they are not exactly the same, and close up you can see the difference. But from a distance, the other greens are just not dark enough to contrast with the spireas, which are the main anchor of this garden. The hollies (Ilex opaca?) are nice and dark, but the boxwoods, the hydrangeas, the ilex glabra, the rhodie, the azalea - they are all kind of a mid-range green that just doesn't contrast enough with the spireas.

Again I want to thank you all for your input. You've all been a very big help. I think I will try a ninebark for the back of the bed, and maybe the Shining Sensation for the back as well (green_go, you sold me with those pictures!). In the meantime, I'll pot up the MIdnight Wine, put them in the spots I was thinking of, and see how they do.

Thank you!
:)
Dee

I came to gardening late too, so you are right, odds are the gardening bug will bite your kids at some future point. And if it doesn't -- two out of three is definitely not bad! :-)