A moribund Weigela in a sea of Bishop Weed, an incredibly aggressive weedy spreader. Don’t be tempted to transplant the latter anywhere else in the garden. I have no idea why your shrubs should decide to turn up their toes but being swamped by the BW won’t be helping. Have you had a drought? A very cold winter? Have you dumped snow there? Or salt? Start by cutting off anything clearly dead and trying to remove as much of the weed as possible. Mulch well and keep after the weeds. It’ll be a lifetime’s work. Alternatively cut your losses. Remove plenty of propagating material and get rid of the shrub. Luckily Weigela is very easy to grow from cuttings.

Thank you so much for answering. Very helpful to know that it is a Weigela.

Winter temps were pretty normal here, not abnormally cold. We did have two abnormally deep snows, but otherwise the winter was relatively normally with average snow pack. I never use salt and when I shovel the stoop (which is near one shrub but not the other) I try to avoid dumping any of the snow onto the shrub and aim for the lawn or the Bishop Weed.

I think our spring was warm earlier than normal, but temperatures seem pretty normal for this time of year, maybe even a bit cool for June. We live in a desert so we don't generally receive much rainfall, but I don't think we are in a drought this year. We have an automated sprinkler system and it runs 3x per week for about 15 minutes in each zone which is the same as we've done for the last 2 years. I do think we turned it on earlier than normal after our lawn started to show stress from the early warm spring.

I will get in there and clear the Bishop Weed from around the plant. If it's that aggressive, I imagine I will have a very difficult time clearing it completely, but I'd be happy to work on keeping it back from the shrub. The previous owner seems to have planted it as ground cover in the two beds against the house on either side of the patio. After looking the plant up online, many of my neighbors have the variegated variety of Bishop Weed planted as well. I am always battling the variegated variety which creeps from my next door neighbor into my front flower beds.

Is it ok to cut back the branches that lack leaves as we are going into summer? (Summer temps are typically about 90 during the day and can easily go into the 100s during July and August.)

You have a variegated Weigela. I have two in my NC yard and love them. They tend to get woody so you do need to prune them properly. However, first you need to clear out your ground cover as it's possibly choking out any new growth from the base of your Weigela and affecting air circulation. You might have to prune your bush way back but it will recover. Just be patient.

While the bishop's weed may be a competitor, I don't think it is capable of sapping that much strength from the Weigela. When a shrub takes a sudden nose dive, sometimes it is saying, "I'm through." If it doesn't show signs of turnaround by midway through the summer, it would be best to replace it.

It’s perfectly fine to remove the dead stems at any time of year. They’re dead so it makes no difference to the shrub.

Thank you so much for taking the time to help me. I really appreciate all of the advice. This forum is such a wonderful community and I am thankful that you take time out of your day to share your knowledge.

I will get out there with my pruning sheers and cut back the dead branches. And I will clear the Bishop Weed from the base. Sounds like I should plan to regularly prune these shrubs. Thank you.

My experience with Weigela is that it can die back in cold, windy winters and if it doesn't get enough water in early spring, it won't bloom. So, my take is if you prune out the dead wood and give it a bucket or two of water a week, it might look good and bloom. Possibly, it won't if it's passed it's bloom time and was short on water at the critical time.

I had mine at the edge of its range in N. Europe. Eva Rathko would bloom, but people with more tender cultivars rarely got blooms, so too much cold is a problem for some cultivars.

I know zip about the climate in Utah, but watch the early spring water and if it dies back in a cold winter, it should rebound.