Sturdy beauty: Abelias are tough pest-resistant shrubs for your garden

Abelias first came to the United States in the early 1900s from eastern Asia and Mexico, and they have been garden favorites since that time.

These are sturdy plants that grow best in full sun to part shade and are drought resistant once established. They have few pest problems other than the possibility of aphids feeding on new growth and are extremely deer resistant. They are not picky about soil pH, and, in addition, their plentiful flowers attract lots of bees and other pollinators.

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Their popularity as landscaping plants results in a wide variety of cultivars being available in local nurseries. What is not to like?

Glossy

While many abelia cultivars have been developed through the years, two of the oldest and largest varieties are still quite popular. Glossy abelia is an informal-shaped shrub that sends out arching stems that can be pruned in late winter to early spring if you wish a more tidy plant.

It sports one-half to one-inch glossy green leaves and large clusters of tiny white bell-shaped flowers. Give glossy abelia plenty of room to grow as it can reach a height and width of eight feet. New stems are reddish in color offering a beautiful contrast to the dark green leaves. After the blooms fall, the pink sepals remain on the plants providing additional color into the summer.

Edward Goucher

Edward Goucher abelia was introduced in 1911 and reaches a height and breadth of about five feet. It sports clusters of lavender pink funnel-shaped flowers with orangey-yellow throats that last from mid-summer into fall. The dark green leaves turn a purplish bronze in the fall. As with glossy abelia, it grows well in hot, full sun and low moisture.

Francis Mason

Fast growing Francis Mason abelia has gold-chartreuse leaves that are more vivid if planted in full sun. It becomes a fountain of white tubular flowers in late summer and reaches four feet in height and breadth within a few years. The red stems and flower sepals contrast beautifully with the unique foliage color.

Radiance

If you prefer variegated leaves on a naturally compact plant, consider a Radiance abelia. It is a moderate, vigorous grower with vivid red stems that provide great contrast to the crisp green and yellow of new foliage which ages to silvery green edged with cream. Its white tubular flowers are fragrant. This shrub grows wider than tall with a height of about three feet and a spread of about five feet.

Canyon Creek

The Canyon Creek abelia cultivar is an evergreen shrub that has a neat, rounded form. In the spring, the leaves emerge with a copper-pink tint that matures to a yellow-green hue in the summer. Come fall, the shrub returns to a pinkish hue. Delicate white and pink fragrant flowers persist from late spring through the fall. It achieves a terminal height and width of three to four feet.

Rose Creek

Rose Creek abelia is a compact, dense, low mounding cultivar with red stems and glossy button-like leaves that emerge with pink tinting in the spring before turning to dark green. It typically matures to a height of two to three feet and a width of three to four feet. It is evergreen in our area, and the leaves may turn to shades of soft purple in the winter. The white flowers with rosy sepals are fragrant and bloom in late spring to early summer.

Hopley's abelias

Hopley’s abelias are also known by other names such as Miss Lemon, Twist of Lime, and Twist of Lemon. They combine an interesting, variegated foliage pattern with an abundance of trumpet-shaped, lightly fragrant blooms in a rounded compact package up to about three-and-a-half feet tall and wide.

The foliage starts out as a bright lemon yellow with a green center and slowly matures to an ivory-white with the same green center. The bell-shaped flowers are light pink with white and appear in early summer, lasting into fall. This cultivar is considered to be one of the heaviest blooming of the abelias, and pruning yearly in spring will maximize the blooms as they appear on new wood.

Kaleidoscope

A personal favorite, spectacular Kaleidoscope abelia, offers year-round leaf color that must be seen to be believed. The chameleon-like foliage changes with the seasons, from golden-yellow in the spring to orange-red in the fall. This dwarf-sized plant has white flowers in spring to fall that are inconspicuous compared to the foliage. It grows to only two to three feet in height and three to four feet in spread and would be great featured in front of taller growing abelias or any other taller growing shrub with less interesting green leaves.

Who can resist including one or more of the members of this great plant family in their garden? I know I cannot, and they are on my list to replace some underwhelming azaleas. Give abelias a try!

Susan Barnes is a Master Gardener Volunteer with UF/IFAS Leon County Extension, an Equal Opportunity Institution. For gardening questions, email AskAMasterGardener@ifas.ufl.edu.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tough abelia shrubs add beauty and resist pests