Weigela White-Flowered Group

'Avalanche'

Raised by Lemoine & Fils in 1909. ‘Flowers in panciles, remaining pure white until they fall; plant vigorous and very floriferous’ (Howard 1965).

'Bristol Snowflake'

Raised by Bristol Nurseries, Bristol, Connecticut and advertised by them in 1961. The flowers are described as ‘goblet shaped, gleaming white, almost everblooming from June and July until well into the fall. To 8 feet tall at maturity. Hardy in Iowa and Vermont. “A seedling of the superb Bristol Ruby.’” (Howard 1965).

'Candida'

An old cultivar with bright green leaves and medium-sized pure white flowers, from a selection made by Thibault and Keteleer, described by Carrière in 1879 (Howard 1965).

'Héroine'

Raised by Lemoine in c. 1896, this is an upright selection with very large white to pale pink flowers, up to 4 cm across at the mouth (Hoffmann 2007).

'Mansais'

An obscure cultivar of medium size, thought to have been raised in France in the late 20th century (before 1995) (Hoffmann 2007).

'Marginata'

A medium- to large-sized shrub of upright growth, the leaves weakly variegated with pale margins, and pale-pink to off-white flowers. This suite of characters suggests Hoffmann’s classification of this clone within the white-flowered group may be tentative (Hoffmann 2007).

'Mont Blanc'

Raised by Lemoine c. 1898, the result of a cross between W. florida and W. hortensis. This is a fast growing selection with large, pure white flowers (Hoffmann 2007), adjudged by successive editors of the Hillier Manual to be ‘perhaps the best of the whites’ (Hillier & Coombes (2002); Edwards & Marshall 2019).

Weigela 'Mont Blanc', grown by Morton Nurseries, Lincolnshire (August 2022). Image John Grimshaw.

'Nivea'

‘Nivea’ was originally introduced as W. hortensis ‘Nivea’ (it is still often referred to as such) arriving in Europe in the early 1860s and to the United Kingdom before 1878. It was soon lauded as ‘one of the finest Weigelas’, receiving a first class certificate in 1891 (Bean 1981b).

'Perle'

Raised by Lemoine in c. 1902, ‘Perle’ is ultimately a large shrub with flowers to 2.5 cm across at the mouth, creamy white with a pale pink fringe and a yellow throat (Hoffmann 2007; Edwards & Marshall 2019).

'Volans'

This is a semi-dwarf shub, 1–1.5 m tall, flowers pink when in bud but becoming white as they open and age. Released in 2007, this is one of numerous cultivars bred in recent years at the Silva Tarauca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening, Czech Republic (Hoffmann 2007).

'White Knight'

Flowers pale pink in bud, maturing to white as they open (Hoffmann 2008).