Weigela is a spring-blooming woody ornamental shrub, also known as five-color crabapple.

Weigela is a deciduous shrub of the genus Weigela in the honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae), a typical woody ornamental flowering plant, named because when it blooms the branches are covered in a profusion of flowers like a colorful ribbon. Its aliases include five-color crabapple and wenguan flower, with slight differences in naming from place to place.

Late spring to early summer each year is its peak blooming period, with flowers in a funnel-shaped bell form, growing in pairs or clusters of several in the leaf axils of one-year-old branches. The corolla is lighter in color when it first opens, then gradually deepens to rose-red or pink-purple, so different shades of flower color can often be seen on the same plant at once, looking especially lively from a distance.

Common cultivated varieties in gardens also include Red Prince weigela, variegated weigela, golden-leaf weigela, purple-leaf weigela and others, some grown mainly for their flowers and some for both flowers and foliage color. Weigela likes light and also tolerates slight shade, has fairly strong cold resistance, and is not demanding about soil, growing best in deep, moist, well-drained spots.

In terms of care, note that its flower buds mostly form on the previous year's branches, so pruning should be arranged after flowering, cutting only spent flowers and overly dense or aging branches, to avoid heavy winter or spring pruning affecting next year's blooming. Keep the soil moist during the growing season, and apply extra fertilizer appropriately before flowering to make the bloom more abundant.

Thanks to advantages such as dense, brilliantly colored flowers and strong adaptability, weigela is often used in courtyards, parks and roadside landscaping, and can be planted as a specimen, in groups, or pruned into a flowering hedge, making it one of the important ornamental flowering shrubs of spring in the north.