WEIGELA ROSEA. 
49 
WEIGELA ROSEA. 
WITH AN ILLUSTRATION. 
The good fortune to introduce, or the pleasure of making 
known any addition to our store of hardy shrubs, possessing even 
but moderate claims to notice, is an occurrence so rare, as to 
be regarded with particular attention, the greatest number of 
new plants belonging to a class that can only be enjoyed by a few 
who possess the required conveniences for their culture ; stove- 
plants, therefore, however beautiful, must always be of secondary 
importance, because of their limited adoption. Not so with 
those of the hardier class ; they are everybody’s flowers, with an 
interest extending to all who care for the healthful and intellectual 
pleasures of a garden; they are necessary alike in the small as 
the large establishment, and every introduction calculated to in¬ 
crease their value must be regarded as a most auspicious event. 
The reception of our present subject may then be readily ima¬ 
gined, when we state it to be perfectly capable of bearing the 
rigours of our climate, and of the freest habit both to grow and 
flower. 
Weigela rosea is a native of China, and we are indebted to the 
exertions of the Horticultural Society of London for the posses¬ 
sion of so fine a thing, it having been discovered by their collector, 
Mr. Fortune, who met with it growing in the garden of a man¬ 
darin, and transmitted it with other rarities to the garden of the 
Society, where, in April of last year, it flowered copiously. The 
shrub, for such it is, appears likely to attain a considerable size, 
as it thrives in the most desirable manner in any ordinary garden 
soil which has the proper degree of porosity necessary to admit 
of the spread of roots. In summer it is clothed with neat, bright 
green foliage, of medium size, and extends its branches equally 
on all sides, so as to form a round-headed specimen, which, for 
pleasing neatness, may vie with any other hardy shrub we have. 
In winter the leaves fall off, the plant being deciduous; but they 
reappear early in spring, and are speedily followed by the hand¬ 
some, rich, rose-coloured flowers, large and abundantly pro¬ 
duced ; and at that time the surpassing loveliness of this novelty 
may be judged of by reference to our figure. 
hi. 
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