If you’re looking for a landscape workhorse that works overtime without demanding a paycheck, let me introduce you to glossy abelia (Abelia × grandiflora). In a world of finicky, one-hit-wonder plants, abelia is a breath of fresh air. It pumps out fragrant, pale pink, tubular flowers from the dog days of July right up until…

If you’ve got an abelia sitting out in your landscape—whether it’s a classic Glossy Abelia, a flashy ‘Kaleidoscope’, or a compact ‘Rose Creek’—you already know they are absolute workhorses. Most of the year, these shrubs just do their thing, pumping out sweet little flowers and surviving whatever crazy weather the seasons throw at them. But…

If there’s one shrub that earns its keep in the American landscape, it’s Abelia. Whether you are growing the dazzling, color-shifting foliage of ‘Kaleidoscope’, the reliable and compact ‘Rose Creek’, or the crisp, bright leaves of ‘Radiance’, these plants are absolute workhorses. They give us glossy foliage, an incredibly long bloom season, and a sweet…

If you are looking for a landscape shrub that is incredibly forgiving of a pair of pruners, you found it in the Abelia. These tough, heavy-blooming shrubs are a favorite across American backyards, mostly because they carry a major biological advantage: they bloom exclusively on new wood. In the gardening world, this trait gives you…

If you walk through a neighborhood garden in late August, you will likely notice a quiet lull. The midsummer riot of daylilies and hydrangeas is beginning to fade, and the autumn aster display hasn’t quite kicked in. But if you are lucky, you might catch a drift of something sweet, clean, and distinctly jasmine-like on…

If you have ever gardened in the colder regions of North America or Europe, you’ve likely looked at the glossy, fragrant abelia shrubs of the South with a bit of envy. For a long time, these beautiful, sweet-scented plants were strictly off-limits for northern landscapes due to their delicate nature. That all changed when Abelia…

Every spring, homeowners march into garden centers and make the exact same mistake. They buy a flat of boxwoods or a couple of cute little evergreen shrubs, plant them right under their front windows, and spend the next ten years pruning them into rigid, boring green meatballs. If you want a house that looks exactly…

If you are staring at a tight spot in your landscape—maybe a narrow border along a driveway, a patio container that needs some architectural backbone, or the awkward space right beneath your front windows—you’ve probably realized how tough it is to find the perfect compact shrub. The ideal candidate needs to stay small so you…

If you’ve ever grown a traditional, old-school glossy abelia, you already know the routine. You plant it expecting a polite, manageable garden citizen, and within three seasons it’s throwing out wild, six-foot octopus arms that devour your walkway and crowd out your perennials. For decades, taming these vigorous growers meant constant, exhausting weekend hacking with…