The shrub is weigela florida 'Foliis Purpureis' and I would have expected that damage if it was in a pot, not in the ground. However, it's vine weevil damage. There have been other questions recently on the same subject. Provado Vine weevil Killer is what you need, to water in round the base of the shrub as a soil drench. The adult weevils, all female, feed at night, so can be hand picked and CRUSHED! I hate 'em. The grubs feed on the roots. It's been a bad year for them this year - well, good for them, bad for us.

Agree on Vine Weevil - those tell tale notches on the leaves give it away. The Provado Vine Weevil killer takes a few weeks to work but does as Worthy has said. Try it now and hopefully the plant will be perfect next year.

brilliant thank you both, off to the garden center. Shall I treat the whole garden or just area around this shrub ?
Worthy you are spot on with the name, such a pretty shrub but I want it so much bigger, I suppose if the vine weevil is eating the new shoots that is limiting it's growth ?

Am not sure about doing the whole garden with Provado as it is a systemic insecticide and you may kill useful insects. I would do the whole bed though several times as it looks a bad infestation.

Sorry to be the voice of doom, but I would avoid using Provado if at all possible - it contains neonicotinoids, in this case thiadproclid, and these are proven to be harmful in the environment for bees.
Google Nemesys and order some vine weevil nematodes instead, now is about the right time to use them. If you have plants in pots, treat the pots, even if there's no evidence of problems with the plants in them. The damage here is adult vine weevil damage, but the immature ones do love to be in pots, so its possible that once they're mature, they migrate to other plants within the garden, and your pots may be the source rather than the open ground.

To late I have just used Provado on the shrub and the shrub only.
I used the Nemesys stuff earlier in the year on the whole garden as my Heuchera's had been attacked, no damage to the leaves they just all snapped off at the base.
I will order some now and do the whole garden and my pots again and just use the Provado on this shrub as it looks so bad. I didn't realise this was wine weevil damage. obviously the Nemesys didn't work on the beds last time.
Thanks everyone.

B
I agree entirely with the chemical angle and the garden centre has been the cause for much debate and soul searching. I avoid the use of Provado (I use no other chemicals) except where I have to in pots to keep the stock saleable! It's 90% the bay trees, and the insect life on them is minimal, bar the weevils, so I give myself that way out. Last year the nematodes were totally ineffective because of the wet weather and the weevils proliferated. I've therefore had no choice this year, but have also been hand picking the little beggars and giving them to the chickens.

Do the vine weevils come out at night, if I went out with my torch could I catch them (makes me feel so much better). My husband laughed at me last year, in that wet weather, I went out every night with my head torch and my salt cellar, gave me so much satisfaction.

Optimum time to use the nematodes is about now as I recall, rather than spring. You can pick them off when you see them, either at night or sometimes in the day, but they will already have finished breeding, and their offspring are present in the soil of pots particularly, and the ground, and it's those you want to kill off before they have a chance to mature over winter/spring and breed themselves.