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  • Roses
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    • Easy Roses
    • Climbing Roses
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    • Rose Insects & Diseases
    • Pruning Roses
    • Rose Sawfly
    • Rose Bloom Balling
  • Pruning Basics 101
    • Pruning Tools
    • Winter Pruning
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    • Pruning Clematis
    • Prune Your Own Garden Registration
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    • Lawn Maintenance Schedule
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    • Harvesting
    • Growing Potatoes
    • Winter Veggie Gardening
    • Taming Tomatoes
    • Speeding up Tomato Harvest
    • Tomato Tips
    • Saving Tomato Seeds
    • Tomato Troubles
  • Plant Pests 1
    • Plant Pests Part 2 - Controlling Insects
    • Garden Inspections
    • Helping Pollinators
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    • Calla Lilies
    • Dahlias
    • Daylily
    • Delphiniums
    • Devil's Walking Stick, Aralia spinosa
    • Dwarf Alberta Spruce
    • Dwarf Burning Bush
    • Evergreen Clematis
    • Fall Asters
    • Flowering Currants
    • Flowering Quince
    • Fritillaria
    • Garden Peonies
    • Garden Phlox
    • Ginkgo biloba
    • Grape-hyacinths
    • Handkerchief or Dove Tree
    • Harry Lauder's Walking Stick
    • Heathers
    • Hellebores, Lenten roses
    • Himalayan Sweet Box
    • Jack-in-the-pulpit, Cobra Lily
    • Japanese Anemones
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    • Japanese Skimmia
    • Japanese Spurge
    • Laurustinus viburnum
    • Lavenders
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    • Mediterranean Spurge
    • Mexican Mock Orange
    • Montana Clematis
    • Mountain Ash
    • Oriental Poppies
    • Oriental Lilies
    • Paperbark Maple
    • Pink Dawn Bodnant Viburnum
    • Poinsettias
    • Oregon Grape Holly
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    • Peruvian Lily, Alstroemeria
    • Phalaenopsis, Moth Orchids
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    • Rose of Sharon
    • Sneezeweed, Helenium
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Glossy Abelia

October's Plant of the Month 2022

Beautiful and Easy to Grow

easy shrubs,Abelia
Glossy abelias are well-behaved shrubs that flower for many months.
fragrant plants
Flowers are pinkish-white and are fragrant.
fragrant flowers
Pink new growth combines with the flower clusters.
Picture
Abelias flower from summer into late fall.
October flower
October flowers

    Abelia Comment

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​Common Name: Glossy Abelia
Botanical Name: Abelia x grandiflora
Form:   upright, arching branches, multi-stemmed, twiggy
Family: Caprifoliaceae
Genus: Abelia
Species: grandiflora
Plant Type:  broadleaf evergreen, semi-evergreen in colder zones
Mature Size: 3-5 ft high and wide
Growth: moderate to fast
Origin: Italy, hybrid cross between A. uniflora and A. chinensis
Hardiness Zone: 5 to 9, Top growth will die down in Zone 5 but will often regrow from the roots.
Foliage: simple, 1 inch leaves, half as wide, dentate leaf margins, deep green that turn bronze in fall
Flowers: clusters of tubular pinkish white, bell-shaped, ¾”fragrant flowers, attracts butterflies late spring to late fall
Fruit: capsule
Exposure: full sun to partial shade
Soil: moist, well-drained, acidic to neutral
Uses: hedge, accent, border, foundation, specimen, planters, erosion control on slopes
Propagation:  softwood cuttings
Pruning: after flowering
​Problems: uncommon: root rot, mildews, fungal leaf spot
Cultivars: Dwarf Purple. leaves turn purple in autumn and are retained throughout winter, pink blooms, dense low growth to 3 ft. ‘Edward Goucher’, flowers a deeper pink and leaves less shiny than the Glossy abelia, Grows 5ft x 5ft. Flowers from June to frost.
Comments: Well-behaved, fall flowering shrubs are rare and very desirable, but this pretty shrub is often overlooked. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because abelias aren’t flashy nor bold, and they don’t have huge showy flowers, but don’t let that dissuade you from planting this versatile, well-behaved an attractive shrub.
 
Although their flowers aren’t huge and flashy, they do have a plethora of them. They are tubular, star-shaped, 3/4" long, fragrant and are borne in clusters at the end of stems. Their flowering period lasts for months, starting from June or July and into November, peaking in autumn.
 
Glossy abelias have many uses in the garden. They have copious amounts of twiggy stems covered in glossy, 1.25 inches long, oval leaves with pointed tips. New leaves have a pinkish hue and in autumn, they turn a purplish bronze.  
 
In areas from USDA Zones 5 to 6, glossy abelias are not evergreen. Even though they might lose their leaves in fall, it doesn’t mean they are dead. It’s just the plant’s way of surviving the winter. When winters are harsh, abelias may die right back to their roots, but they will regrow – so don’t give up on them.
 
Abelias are perfect to use as hedging, screens and topiaries due to their dense twiggy growth, small foliage and flowers that don’t stop because they form on new growth. They are desirable foundation plants as they don’t get too big or unruly. Their deep green glossy leaves are perfect to use as background plants and their fragrant flowers are welcome anywhere in the garden. 

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  • Home
  • About, Services, Contact
  • Ask Amanda
  • Roses
    • Types of Roses
    • Easy Roses
    • Climbing Roses
    • Portland's Rose Test Garden
    • Rose Insects & Diseases
    • Pruning Roses
    • Rose Sawfly
    • Rose Bloom Balling
  • Pruning Basics 101
    • Pruning Tools
    • Winter Pruning
    • Pruning Grapes
    • Pruning Clematis
    • Prune Your Own Garden Registration
  • Lawn Basics
    • Lawn Reno, Seed & Sod
    • Lawn Maintenance Schedule
    • Spring Lawn Care
    • Moss in Lawns
    • Lawn Alternatives
    • Lawn Grub Control
  • Mulch & Mulching
    • Living Mulches - Groundcovers
  • Propagation
    • Growing Seeds Outdoors
    • Growing Seeds Indoors
    • Taking Cuttings
    • Seed & Plant Catalogues
  • How to Garden Topics
    • Fall Garden Chores
    • Planting Know-How
    • Soil Building
    • Watering Tips & Techniques
    • Drought Gardening
    • Sheet Mulching, Lasagna Gardening
    • Cover Crops
    • Composting
    • Compost Tea
    • Houseplant Winter Care
    • Hummingbirds in Winter
    • Winterize Your Garden
    • Ponds in Winter
  • Growing Food
    • Spring Veggie Gardening
    • Crop Rotation, Succession & Companion Planting
    • Harvesting
    • Growing Potatoes
    • Winter Veggie Gardening
    • Taming Tomatoes
    • Speeding up Tomato Harvest
    • Tomato Tips
    • Saving Tomato Seeds
    • Tomato Troubles
  • Plant Pests 1
    • Plant Pests Part 2 - Controlling Insects
    • Garden Inspections
    • Helping Pollinators
    • Dogwood Anthracnose
    • Viburnum Leaf Beetle
    • Dormant Oil/Lime Sulfur
    • Japanese Beetles
    • Peony Blotch/Measles
    • Slugs & Snails
    • Horsetail, the Weed
    • June Beetle
    • Powdery Mildew
    • Soil Solarization
    • Rhododendron Leaf Spot
    • Plant Rusts
    • Black Knot
  • Container Growing
    • Choosing a Container
  • Feeding Plants 101
    • Fertilizers & Ratios
    • Nutritional Deficiencies & Toxicities
    • Organic Plant Food
  • Plant of the Month
    • Spring Flowering Bulbs
    • Colourful Fall Plants
    • Abelia
    • American Sweetgum
    • Ash (Fraxinus) Trees
    • Astilbes
    • Aubretia, Rock Cress
    • Aucuba, Japanese Spotted Laurel
    • Autumn Crocus
    • Bear's Breeches
    • Beautyberry, Callicarpa
    • Black-eyed Susans
    • Bleeding Heart, Lamprocapnos spectabilis
    • Calla Lilies
    • Dahlias
    • Daylily
    • Delphiniums
    • Devil's Walking Stick, Aralia spinosa
    • Dwarf Alberta Spruce
    • Dwarf Burning Bush
    • Evergreen Clematis
    • Fall Asters
    • Flowering Currants
    • Flowering Quince
    • Fritillaria
    • Garden Peonies
    • Garden Phlox
    • Ginkgo biloba
    • Grape-hyacinths
    • Handkerchief or Dove Tree
    • Harry Lauder's Walking Stick
    • Heathers
    • Hellebores, Lenten roses
    • Himalayan Sweet Box
    • Jack-in-the-pulpit, Cobra Lily
    • Japanese Anemones
    • Japanese Forest Grass
    • Japanese Maples
    • Japanese Skimmia
    • Japanese Spurge
    • Laurustinus viburnum
    • Lavenders
    • Lily-of-the-Valley Shrub, Pieris japonica
    • Mediterranean Spurge
    • Mexican Mock Orange
    • Montana Clematis
    • Mountain Ash
    • Oriental Poppies
    • Oriental Lilies
    • Paperbark Maple
    • Pink Dawn Bodnant Viburnum
    • Poinsettias
    • Oregon Grape Holly
    • Ornamental Kale
    • Peruvian Lily, Alstroemeria
    • Phalaenopsis, Moth Orchids
    • Persian Silk Tree
    • Portuguese Laurel
    • Rose of Sharon
    • Sneezeweed, Helenium
    • Snowberry
    • Snowdrops
    • Star Magnolia
    • Strawberry Tree, Pacific Madrone
    • Stewartia
    • Torch Lily, Kniphofia uvaria
    • Tree Peonies
    • Tuberous Begonias
    • Virginia Creeper
    • Weigela
    • Winterhazel, Corylopsis
    • Winter Camellia, C. sasanqua
    • Wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens
    • Witch Hazel
    • Wood Anemones
    • Yews
  • Garden Tour Blogs
  • Monthly Flower Arrangements
  • Website Index
  • Subscribe
  • Need Help?
  • Garden Club Events