Butterfly gardening has become a big hit with gardeners, and they’re always looking for plants to attract these “flying flowers.” One of the best for this purpose is the many-flowered Chinese abelia (Abelia chinensis).
You can attract lots of butterflies to the garden with the small flowers of Chinese abelia.
Photo Credit: Gerald L. Klingaman
Chinese abelia produces a red calyx that gives the illusion the plant is in flower long after the flowers have faded.
Photo Credit: Gerald L. Klingaman
This pretty shrub reaches 6 feet tall and spreads with multitudinous branches sticking out in all directions – like Phyllis Diller on a bad-hair day. It produces long, wispy growth covered with maroon-tinged leaves with a predictable triangularity as they cluster along the arching stems.
As summer wears on, the plant produces massive terminal clusters of white, bell-shaped flowers with a subtending red calyx, adding to the summertime color of the shrub and making it look like it’s still in “bloom.” As long as the plant continues to make new growth during the summer, it’ll continue to flower. Because Chinese abelia branches so freely, it often suffers mightily at the hands of well-intending gardeners who shape it into round-topped balls that often take on the profile of a giant mushroom.
Chinese abelia, unlike its better known progeny glossy abelia, flowers from midsummer until fall but has a much higher bloom count than glossy abelia. While the Chinese abelia is never covered with a mass of flowers like an azalea, its bloom persistence keeps it from receding into the background, especially when cloaked with butterflies.
This is an easily grown plant that should be located in bright light or preferably full sun. It’s hardy to Zone 5, where some winter-kill may occur. Springtime planting is best, especially in cold areas. Once established, Chinese abelia is extremely drought-tolerant. It has no serious insect or disease problems.
Too often abelias are sheared to make a clipped shrub that looks more like a toadstool than a plant. A better remedy is to remember that the plant grows 6 feet tall and wide, so give it plenty of room to grow. When it needs pruning to control size, cut it back severely in spring, just before growth begins. (It should be pruned about as severely as the forsythia and at about the same time, which is early spring.) Because it’s a fast grower, there will be plenty of new blooms to enjoy by late summer – and plenty of butterflies to welcome to your garden.
