The Shrub With Pretty Pink Flowers All Season Long That Hummingbirds & Butterflies Love

If you've ever bought a shrub in bloom only to discover it's a green mound most of the year, you understand the letdown. You're looking for season-long color and flowers to attract hummingbirds and butterflies, but if you choose the wrong plants, you could end up with another spring show followed by boring greenery the rest of the season. With the Sonic Bloom series of weigelas (Weigela florida) from Proven Winners ColorChoice, you get a heavy flush of red and pink-colored blossoms in the spring, followed by steady blooms all summer long.

After a flush of blooms that last for a couple of weeks in the spring, shrubs like lilacs and serviceberries are done for the year. Old-fashioned weigelas make a dense privacy hedge full of tubular flowers that are perfect for hummingbirds and butterflies, but after they bloom in the spring, there are a few blossoms in the summer and that's it. With the Sonic Bloom weigela series, after an abundance of flowers in May, you get blooms until the first frost. With continuous flushes in various shades of red and pink, they provide plenty of nectar for hummingbirds and butterflies throughout the summer.

This re-blooming weigela series includes the hot pink 'Sonic Bloom Pink,' the lipstick-red 'Sonic Bloom Red,' and 'Sonic Bloom Punch,' which has vibrant pink blossoms. It also includes 'Sonic Bloom Wine,' which has dark foliage, perfect for creating a hauntingly beautiful goth garden.

If you're looking for plants that will attract both hummingbirds and butterflies to your yard, the reblooming 'Sonic Bloom' series is a good choice. They're ideally grown in USDA Hardiness Zones 4 to 8 and can live 30 to 40 years. Spring is an ideal time to plant them, but if you miss that window, you can get them in the ground in the fall before the ground freezes. Weigelas will grow in dappled light, partial shade, and full sun. If you put them somewhere they'll receive sun at least 6 to 8 hours each day, they'll produce abundant flowers. Weigelas are drought-tolerant once established and need good drainage, but will grow in a wide range of soil types. Provide mulch and fertilize in late winter or early spring for more abundant blooms.

Weigelas are an old-fashioned favorite, and the large varieties get 6 to 10 feet tall and 9 to 12 feet wide, requiring significant pruning to keep them in shape. With the 'Sonic Bloom' series, only minimal pruning is required. A rejuvenation pruning every 3 to 5 years is recommended, where you remove ⅓ of the largest branches, cutting them back to the ground. At 4 to 5 feet tall and wide, the 'Sonic Bloom' series is an ideal size for a screen planting or to add structure to a perennial flower garden. As a bonus, there's no need to deadhead the cultivars in the Sonic Bloom series, making them even more low-maintenance than traditional weigelas.