Abelia x grandiflora

Description

Abelia x Grandiflora, or Glossy Abelia, has mint-green leaves with a narrow white edge and new foliage is pinkish brown. The tiny flowers are snow white. It makes a great candidate for a pot and can form a lovely dense shape if lightly trimmed regularly. It has a mature size of about 1,5 x 1,5 m.

In the colder gardens in particular, and even in ‘difficult’ climates such as coastal gardens, you can depend on the Glossy Abelia. This garden hybrid is an evergreen shrub that grows to about 2 x 1,5 m, with long lateral branches that spread elegantly to form a rounded, bushy shape. Its small, oval-shaped leaves are dark green and glossy, but it is quite normal to see a bronze tint on both new and older leaves. (Some newer hybrids have lovely variegated leaves.) It produces bunches of bell-shaped, white flowers with a soft pink tint, and the calyces are almost rosy pink to light purple.

Although there is no shortage of flowers when the Glossy Abelia is in bloom, it is not planted primarily as an exceptionally attractive flowering shrub, but rather as a very reliable grower that holds its own as a background shrub amongst other plants. It willingly grows in both full sun and light shade and, even more importantly, it performs particularly well as an informal hedge.