| Abelia × grandiflora | ||||||||||||
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 Glossy Abelia (Abelia × grandiflora) | ||||||||||||
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| Abelia × grandiflora (André) Rehd. | ||||||||||||
Abelia × grandiflora (Glossy Abelia) is a hybrid Abelia, raised by hybridising Abelia chinensis with A. uniflora. It is a deciduous or semi-evergreen multi-stemmed shrub with rounded, spreading, or gracefully arching branches to 1-1.8 m tall. The leaves are ovate, glossy, dark green, 2-6 cm long. The flowers are produced in clusters, white, tinged pink, bell-shaped, to 2 cm long.
Evergreen to semievergreen. Zones 4-24, 28-35. Hybrid of two species from China. Best known and most popular of the abelias. Grows to 8 ft. or taller; spreads to 5 ft. or wider. Flowers white or faintly tinged pink. Stems freeze at about 0°F/-18°C, but plant will usually recover to bloom the same year, making a graceful border plant 10-15 in. tall.
'Francis Mason' is a compact (3-4 ft. high and wide), densly branched variety, with pink flowers and yellow-variegated leaves. 'Golden Glow' is similar, but with entirely yellow foliage. 'Prostrata' is a low-growing (l 1/2-2-ft.), smaller-leafed variety useful as ground cover, bank planting, low foreground shrub. 'Sherwoodii' grows 3-4 ft. tall, 5 ft wide, hybrid 'Edward Goucher' is less hardy (Zones 5-24, 28-32), lower growing (to 3-5 ft.), and lacier than its A. grandiflora parent, with small, orange-throated, lilac-pink flowers.
Cultivation and uses
Abelia × grandiflora was first raised at the Rovelli nursery by Lake Maggiore in Italy in 1886. It is used as an ornamental plant in specimen plantings in gardens, or in a mixed border with other shrubs. Propagation is by cuttings.
Synonyms include Abelia rupestris Hort., Linnaea pringiana Graebn, and L. spaethiana Graebn.
References
- Sunset National Garden Book. Sunset Books, Inc., 1997. ISBN 0376038608
- Bailey, L. H. (2005). Manual of Gardening (Second Edition).. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.
- Template:Pt icon Lorenzi, H.; Souza, M.S. (2001) Plantas Ornamentais no Brasil: arbustivas, herbáceas e trepadeiras. Plantarum ISBN 85-86714-12-7