Abelia x grandiflora 'Hopleys' (glossy abelia)
Hopleys abelia is sought after for the year-round pop of foliage color and the summer-long flowering.
The leaves are multi-colored variegated - that means they are green with gold and cream streaks up the sides. In winter those streaks turn pink on the youngest leaves. This color change is so pretty and fittingly moody for winters.
The tubular flowers are white inside and light pink outside - for garden design, they would go in the pink category more so than white. Individual flowers are held in a cluster and form a dome to look like one flower.
Abelias are tough plants for zone 6a and warmer. Their evergreen foliage and long flowering season - first the light pink flower heads last for weeks then, once the flowers fall off, the darker rosy sepals remain until autumn.
- slightly smaller/compact than other abelias
- colorful foliage and flower power for a long time
- winter interest (bright leaf color)
- heat tolerant
- attracts butterflies
- deer resistant
- Winter: variegated
- Spring: variegated
- Summer: variegated
- Fall: variegated
We can't guarantee it, but in colder climates some gardeners treat abelia like a perennial and let it die back to the roots and it regrows every year, behaving like a perennial, more so than a shrub. They mulch it with lots of insulating material. Come spring, they sheer the shrub's dead branches and it comes back from the roots. This is what zone 6-er's do. We live in zone 8, so are kinda nervous about this, but we hear it works!