Why-gee!-la

Here is a basic, old-fashioned plant, Weigela florida "Carnival," and there truly is nothing more beautiful in my garden now. It's been on the east side of my house for maybe six years, just peaking out to the south side, so I guess you could say it gets partial sun. Its spreading, arching habit has always been a bit of a problem because it needed something. A wrought-iron arch, say, to be draped upon.

Some people never do anything to these shrubs and they can get honking big (the plants, not the people). Because mine is on the narrow side of the garden I've kept it pruned. Just a few weeks ago I moved the wrought iron arch that you can barely see to this spot, which is just at the entrance to the backyard, and am SO GLAD that for whatever reason I didn't cut the weigela way back earlier this year, as I had thought to do after the December storm. I've woven some of its long, flexible branches through the arch and now I have this gorgeous bower. When the weigela is finished blooming a couple clematis will come along. I've rarely been happier with the way a spot is turning out.

There are at least a dozen weigela varieties, some of them growing only a couple feet tall (like "Minuet" and "Wine and Roses." They're all terrific, I think, it just depends on what you need in what space. They're two-season plants, with no fall color and no great structure to recommend them in winter. But they're just so easy, requiring no more care than you care to give them; and Carnival in particular is so pretty, with its tubular flowers of many shades of pink. It's the ultimate girly-girl shrub.