Let’s be honest: for a long time, old-school abelias were the beige wallpaper of the suburban landscape. Landscapers used to dump them into commercial parking lots or the back of foundation plantings because they were tough, but nobody ever really looked at them. They got tall, they got leggy, and they spent most of the…

I spend a ridiculous amount of time talking people out of planting temperamental nonsense. Everyone comes to me wanting a miracle plant: something that flowers from June until the first frost, doesn’t die the second you forget to water it, smells great, and doesn’t look like a bundle of grey twigs all winter. For years,…