The Wine and Roses bloomed beautiflly this year. The blooms lasted quite some time. Their branches are reaching fairly straight up now and the foliage is the green and purple you expect.

One of 3 of the Midnight Wine bloomed this year and 2 did not. The blooms were similar to the Wine and Roses but smaller. The shape of my Midnight Wine are more like low ground cover. The foliage is not nearly as rich as the Wine and Roses.

In my view, my Wine and Roses are superior to my Midnight Wine in every way.

Are there any new opinions on the 'Wine and Roses' vs 'Midnight Wine?'

Thanks!

Sue

W&R flowers well early on and will lightly rebloom throughout the season. This year I am noticing that the foliage (in almost full sun), looks very brown to me. I may not have noticed it before or it may be a weather/culture thing. Mine is 3 years old and about 3' H. It spent the first season as a patio pot and went in then ground 9/04.

The W&R are excellent plants with great blooms. They are reblooming now--at least 3 of the ones I passed by this morning.

My 3 MW did not bloom at all. They leaf-out fairly late in the Spring and they test the patience of my shovel each year. Now, the foliage is growing and they are a dense little plant. Mine could be used as a background for some small bright plants but nothing more. I would not buy any more.

When mulch is dry burgundy foliage color stands out much better.

Very nice composition!. What are the yellow\lime colored plants?

thanks,
xman

Not in bloom, lightly trimmed, looks sickly:

Maybe some of those yellow/lime plants would help it out from the pretty bed above.

Midnight Wine is a dwarf mounded plant under 18" tall. Its main attribute is it's size, habit and foliage color. It is not a strong blooming plant because the stem length is so short. It progressively gets darker as the season progresses. It is also best used in Zones 5 or warmer. This is a good plant for use in perennial gardens, or mass plantings or decorative containers.

Wine & Roses is a taller plant, about 5' tall, with darker, glossier leaves and an abundance of flowers. It is hardy to zone 4. This plant looks its best when it is sheared right after flowering, giving a flush of fresh dark foliage and more flowers. It's great for cutting and using in flower bouquets.

Fine Wine, the newest plant in the Wine Series is intermediate in size, being about 3' tall. It is more the shape and size of Java Red but with darker leaves and brighter flowers. This plant is good for mass planting. It is the hardiest of the three and well adapted to a cold zone 4. Weigela is often prone to tip die back and I have seen very little on this plant. This is a strong bloomer.

I have a dozen MW along the front of a border alternating with sedum 'White Diamond' in the front and spiraea 'Magic Carpet' and 'Limemound' behind using that same type of contrast as ego45. I chose MW for the foliage color and the mounding effect alone.

But I must admit its been a learning experience for me . I bought 3 weigela last year 2 red prince and 1 wine and roses. The red prince has and is still flowering their heads off but I stray. The WR flowered some last year but did not releaf nor did it grow and I gave up on it as being dead. Meanwhile this season I found two more larger wine and roses 3gal size. They were not flowering when I bought them but I was sure they would they had not flowered up thru early july. So I go over to a nearby plant farm and talk to head man in the shrubs he said they would not flower this year if they had not by now. So I went for broke I started watering these guys heavy compared to what I had been watering and can you believe it they started lightly flowering even in this heat and drought of this year.

So the answer I had been severely under watering these guys in fear of over watering and causing root rot. I had read about this over and over. I should not have been scared as I made sure these guys had great well draining soil. So I had also killed the first plant from last year for the same reason. It is said the first two years they need plenty of water till established and then after that they should be ok. So at least now I have a feel for how much water they need at least in this drought.