Weigela would be my guess. Main bloom should be in late Spring, then prune in early summer after the main bloom.

If you don't mind sacrificing much of the bloom next spring, you can probably prune way back now.

Weigela. It's being pruned too much so that the natural graceful shape has been taken away. If there isn't enough room for it to develop fully in that location it should be transplanted to a bigger spot during the winter or discarded, replaced by something smaller growing.

the link shows what they are supposed to look like.. properly sited ... and properly rejuvenation pruned ... they are not really a plant that takes to shearing, like a hedge .. if you want the flowers to be significant ...

https://www.google.com/search?q=variegated+weigela&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwilsaqy5pnPAhUr_4MKHZ7fBqUQ_AUICSgC&biw=958&bih=745&dpr=0.9

they are rather commonly available.. and cheap ... i would probably just remove this one .. and start with a new young plant in a better spot ... if you have such a spot ...

ken

I'm going to try rejuvenation pruning for all my weigelas, should this be done yearly Ken? Also even for the small varieties?

Rejuvenation pruning is not something that should be done yearly. What you are thinking of is called coppicing/pollarding. I wouldn't remove this one, perform rejuvenation pruning this spring then lightly shape it (not shearing) prune about 1/4 of the branches off each spring after you get it to the desired size. Also remove dead, broken, and diseased branches any given time.

Advice is the same as for your other Weigela.

BTW coppicing and pollarding are not connected with rejuvenation pruning and are not suitable techniques for Weigela.

Floral, I was trying to explain coppicing/pollarding are not best for the OP's situation.

OK, so when rejuvenation pruning, I only prune branches stemming off of one of the main stems (seems to be about half dozen coming from the ground) or I cut one or two main stems to the ground?

Logan: Why don't you take a few weeks off from posting on Gardenweb? Tossing around terms like rejuvenation pruning, pollarding and coppicing which clearly you do not understand fully doesn't make you look smart. Quite the opposite. Likewise, confusing sorbus with fraxinus, thuja with chamaecyparis. In your time off, see if your library has a copy of Michael Dirr's book, Manual of Woody Landscape Plants. You'll find all kinds of valuable information concerning nomenclature, cultivation, propagation, cultivars, and pruning. Even the mysteries of dormancy in evergreens.

I know what pollarding (removing new growth at a certain point annually), coppicing (removing growth of a shrub near the base on an annual/biennial basis). I did not confuse the thuja with chamaecyparis, I was just implying that it's growth habit looked similar. While I did confuse the fraxinus (sorbus and fraxinus aren't common here) and know next to nothing about dormancy in evergreens, I still find the majority (not all, but the majority) of my posts to be helpful.

The majority of your posts that might charitably be considered helpful are usually copied from someone else who actually knows something. These are completely overshadowed by your many, many posts that are inaccurate or irrelevant to the point of absurdity. You seem to believe that your small section of Caldwell County, NC is all there is. Not knowing the difference between sorbus and fraxinus "because they aren't common here" is a lame excuse for a ridiculously inaccurate post. If you know nothing about mountain ash or real ash, don't post. Simple as that.

Logan-Caldwell, your definition of coppicing is close but there is no time specification in the technique. It is not necessarily annual or biennial. For example, traditional coppicing of hazel woodland is usually done on a 7 year cycle. Chestnut, ash, etc (all larger trees than hazel) are coppiced on 15 - 20 year cycle. Your description of pollarding isn't accurate either.

If the weigela in question is going to be allowed to develop a natural size and shape the thing to do is to merely stop pruning it, rather than pruning it harder. Especially if you are not certain about the details of the technique - which consists basically of whacking the whole thing down to stumps during winter (heavy non-selective pruning). Any pruning involving cutting parts of branches away while leaving much of the rest in place is selective pruning, done as part of routine maintenance of a cane-growing shrub, and is not rejuvenation pruning. The latter is a do over, a starting again from scratch, undertaken when a shrub has become a hopeless tangle, a twiggy blob or otherwise too much to make appealing with a reasonable amount of maintenance pruning.

After a shrub is made to re-grow from near the ground it should be some years before the treatment is repeated. The specific interval depends on how vigorously a particular specimen comes back and how big the gardener wants it to be, how youthful it is desired for it to look. For example I cut off a Euonymus alatus 'Compactus' planted too near a drive at my girlfriend's place every few to several years, with it starting to look normal and already approaching the space being exceeded by about the second year after the pruning. Due to the branching structure of this kind I do not do any other cutting on it, there is actually a pretty large number of trees and shrubs that cannot be lopped part way back without an ugly and disruptive effect being produced.

Rejuvenation pruning can involve all of the stems or some of the stems, as long as they are cut at ground level.

OK, so I've done some digging, and basically this is a shell of foliage, with a deadzone in the centre, I'm assuming from years of being wrongfully pruned. Do I cut it back completely? I think that there are 4 more that are probably in the same state.

You could the whole thing to ground level or do it in sections over a couple of years. your choice. This habit of ending up as a twiggy mass with leaves only on the outside is what happens when you shear a Weigela rather than pruning it.

That's what I thought, I think I'm just gonna cut to ground, I'm ok to do it right now?

I'd wait until late winter to do it. If you do it now, it may try to regrow right away which won't have time to harden off this fall - those branches will die at the first hard freeze. If you wait until next spring, the new branches will start at the right time to grow for next season. Around here, I tend to do my rejuvenation pruning in late March to early May, depending on the weather.

How long does it take to harden? We won't have frost for another while yet. We are in the mid 20s and no drop in sight. I'm still getting cayenne blossoms (though I pinch)

It takes a good chunk of the growing season, perhaps 2+ months. In Ontario, it's too late now. If you don't want to wait until next spring, do it really late fall/early winter after a couple of hard freezes. You will regret doing it now since resprouting will take the plant's stored energy and so it won't have that available next spring for strong regrowth.

OK thanks