Abelia Brilliantina™

A Proven Winners® ColorChoice® Flowering Shrubs variety, Abelia Brilliantina™ is a semievergreen perennial shrub grown for its attractive foliage and months of fragrant flowers. A unique abelia, Brilliantina is not only bold and beautiful but also well-behaved, with fewer errant shoots that need pruning. Its slender, gracefully arching dark-red stems bear bright variegated green, yellow, and orange leaves, which hold their variegation better than most, and clusters of bell-shaped, pink-tinged white flowers that sustain summer pollinators, including bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

An Abelia x grandiflora [syn Linnaea x grandiflora], commonly called abelia or glossy abelia, Brilliantina has a fast growth rate and a neat, dense, mounding habit. Massed or grouped, it is an excellent choice for general landscaping in beds, borders, and foundation plantings; and it's an especially attractive (and effective) option for controlling erosion on banks and slopes. But it also makes a lovely specimen or low hedge plant.

Tough, easy to grow, and virtually maintenance free once established, abelia grows best in sunny to partly sunny locations with organically rich, medium moist, well-draining soils having an alkaline pH, but it tolerates a wide range of soils, including dry and clay soils. Brilliantina is deer resistant and drought and heat tolerant, but in hot summer climates, some shade and mulch may be beneficial. Blooms are borne on new wood, so any desired pruning should be done in late winter to early spring before new growth emerges.