Abelia Shrubs

Long bloom time, evergreen foliage, incredibly colorful year-round, and great fall color! If all these perks in one plant seem too good to be true… let Nature Hills introduce you to Abelias!

Native to eastern Asia and southern North America (Mexico), Abelias are popular garden shrubs for hot and humid climates. The most widely grown form is the hybrid Abelia x grandiflora or the Glossy Abelia.

Featuring leaves that are ovate, glossy, dark green, and turn purplish-bronze to red in autumn, now there are many cultivars with an incredible array of colors! Many have fantastic new growth, colorful variegation, dramatic color combos, and typically have red stems to offset it all! 

Clothed from spring through fall with its terminal clusters of delicate pink and white, small, tubular bell-shaped flowers. The pollinator-friendly flowers resemble their closely related Honeysuckle family members, and are usually sweetly scented! The flowers are also perfect for attracting and feeding Hummingbirds! The flowers can give way to small drupes that birds may seek out, but they aren’t really showy or noticeable.

Multiple stems arise from the ground in a vase shape or become arching and spreading.

These shrubs are wonderfully easy to grow, water-wise, pest and disease resistant, and deer seldom bother with them unless desperate!

What more do you need? Order your new Abelia landscape ornamentals today!

How To Use Abelia In Your Garden

Abelia is often used by landscapers and gardeners for foundation plantings that won’t block your view through your windows! They are phenomenal with showy spring new growth, radiant summer foliage, and impressive fall color shrubs, plus they provide three seasons of flowers and even winter interest!

Looking fantastic either formally sheared, or left to grow in their compact natural form, either way Abelia will fit right into your landscape! These shrubs - especially the evergreen selections - are fantastic hedges and screens, providing property division, privacy, and lush backdrops that may out flower the rest of your landscaping!

Smaller Abelia work beautifully in containers and planters, shining as specimen plantings and thrillers! Dress up your front porch with formal urns, your seating areas with colorful and fragrant potted accents, or patio decor! Decorate your courtyard, terrace or balcony with their near-effortless charm.

Even though small installations, single specimens, or groupings of Abelia are gorgeous on their own, mass plantings of these showy ornamentals create eye-catching and low-maintenance drifts!

Fill in the bare ground on slopes, make hard-to-mow hillsides safer, and hold back soil erosion while slowing rainwater runoff!

FAQs

Choosing The Right Abelia Bushes For You!

Browse only for the right Abelia for your Planting Zone using our USDA zone filters, choose sun exposure levels, or narrow the options by height and spread!

Not sure where to start? Check out these popular Abelia selections!

• Kaleidoscope Abelia - A rainbow of spring, summer, and fall colors!
• Ruby Anniversary® is one of the most cold-hardy Abeila
• Rose Creek Abelia pinkish new growth and lush green leaves plus bicolored flowers
• Radiance Abelia a compact dwarf Abelia with variegated foliage

Caring For Abelia 

Abelia grown in warm climates are broadleaved evergreens but can also be semi-evergreen, and the colder climate species act as deciduous shrubs.

Abelia prefers full sun to partial shade and moist, well-drained soil. Provide moderate moisture for new shrubs, not letting them dry out their first year in the ground. Once established, Abelia are drought-resistant low-water-usage shrubs!

However, because many of these shrubs are broadleaf evergreens, to prepare them for winter, ensure they have a good layer of mulch and give them plenty of water throughout the fall so they do not go into winter with dry roots. In areas with some drying northern winds, spraying your shrub with wilt-stop will keep their leaves from getting windburn.

The shrub needs protection from strong winds, but are largely Deer, pest, heat, humidity, disease, and rabbit-resistant plants! Many varieties even handle clay soil.

Abelia bushes need minimal pruning and bloom on new wood, so late winter or very early spring before new growth emerges, remove wayward or damaged branches, trim or shear your shrub into a formal presentation, or simply leave it alone! These compact shrubs really won’t need much work to look this good!

Abelia performs best when given adequate air circulation, but who would want to crowd these colorful little numbers?

Get your new shrubs off on the right foot with these simple tips, planting advice in our #ProPlantTips, and with Nature Hills Root Booster at the time of planting for lifelong symbiotic root system support!

• Create raised gardens or berms if you have poor drainage
• Provide a 3-4 inch deep layer of mulch over the root system
• Check out the Plants Description for pruning and other care requirements
• Water new plants regularly using the Finger Test to help them get established

Can Abelia be kept small?

Abelia are wonderfully adaptable to pruning and can be left to grow naturally, trimmed smaller as needed, or even sheared formally.

How fast does Abelia grow?

Abelia bushes are moderate to fast growers and can add 1-2 feet of growth per year.

What shrubs pair well with Abelia?

Some of the best shrubs that go well with Abelia are other acid-loving shrubs like Azalea and Rhododendron, but they also pair nicely with Bush Honeysuckle, Weigela, Roses, Nandina and Barberry.

Does Abelia spread?

Abelia shrubs are not suckering or colonizing shrubs, so the mature width of your Abelia selection is the maximum width it will grow.

Why Order Abelia From NatureHills.com?

Family-owned and operated since 2001, Nature Hills Nursery prides itself on meeting the needs of customers with an ever-growing collection of online plants backed by our product guarantee and protected by Plant Sentry™. 

All of our plants are delivered safely to your home with instructions for planting, care, and storage, so you can order knowing you'll have exactly what you need! Plus plenty more information in our #ProPlantTips Garden Blog for extra support and inspiration!

Call now at (402) 934-8116 and learn more about what Abelia bushes are available for your landscape!