Above: Glossy Abelia, pictured on the right in the Walled Garden, plays a supporting role that almost goes unnoticed in the height of Summer. This is a gold-leafed cultivar.
When it comes to long-blooming structural shrubs, you can’t beat glossy abelia (Abelia x grandiflora). While it starts blooming spring, it really comes into its own this time of year.
A member of the honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae), glossy abelia has gracefully arching branches lined with small, glossy green leaves that have a tinge of dark pink along its stems. Its new growth also has a tinge of dark pink setting off the first small, bell-shaped flowers that simultaneously open in dainty little clusters.
The early blossoms coincide with gaudier Spring flowers and persist through Summer’s burst of colour and texture, so the shrub tends to play a background role that sometimes goes unnoticed but as Summer blooming perennials dwindle, glossy abelia continues producing its fragrant flowers, and it is then when one really takes notice. It doesn’t hurt that when the flowers drop, pinkish sepals remain beside the new blossoms and contribute to its autumnal display.
Our specimens in the Walled Garden are quite large and, at their largest, when they were very overgrown, had reached a height of 2 to 2.5 metres (6 to 8 feet) and were about 2 metres (6 feet) wide. They took severe pruning very well and we keep them about 1.2 to1.4 metres (4 to 5 feet) tall and about 1.2 metres (4 feet) wide. As they bloom on new wood (meaning they forms their flowers in Spring rather than during the previous Autumn) they can be pruned any time of year without sacrificing flowers. Cultivars vary in size and colour, and there are even golden and variegated cultivars from which to choose.
While it flowers best in full shade, semi-deciduous glossy abelia blooms best in full sun. It needs a sheltered position in colder areas as cold, dry winds contributes to leaf drop. It will tolerate a wide range of temperatures down to –15 degrees Celsius (0 degrees Fahrenheit), but keep in mind that the colder it gets the more deciduous it becomes, and its stems can even die back to the ground, so it is important to protect its roots with mulch in colder areas.
An easy shrub to grow, this workhorse needs well-draining soil and is useful as a specimen plant as well as in mass plantings, including on banks to help with erosion control. It is a shrub that plays a structural role in the garden.
The genus name, ‘Abelia’ derives from Dr. Clark Abel (1789-1826), an English naturalist and physician, and its specific epithet, grandiflora, means ‘large flowers’ – which is odd as the flowers most definitely are not!