Plant type: Shrub
Bloom time: Summer
Best location: Sun or light shade; fertile, well-drained soil
Diseases: Root rot, anthracnose, powdery mildew, cercospora leaf spot
Garden pests: No serious problems
Good garden companions: Underplant with wild bee balm (Monarda fistulosa)
Propagation: Softwood cuttings in early summer
Zones: 6–9, unless indicated otherwise
This deciduous or evergreen shrub from Asia and Mexico and attractive foliage and funnel-shaped blooms over a long season. It is useful for borders, foundations, specimens.
GROWER’S CHOICE
Chinese abelia (A. chinensis), is deciduous, spreading, 5 feet tall. Zones 7–9. ‘Edward Goucher’, a hybrid, is semievergreen, with lilac-pink flowers. Glossy abelia (A.x grandiflora), with fragrant, pink-tinged white flowers, grows up to 10 feet tall. Its cultivar ‘Francis Mason’ has golden leaves with green markings on 5-foot-tall plants; ‘Goldsport’ has all-yellow foliage.
