Abelia grandiflora PINKY BELLS

Abelia x grandiflora PINKY BELLS NOBLE is a charming American novelty that enriches the range of bushes suitable for small spaces and for ornamenting terraces. Its habit is naturally ramified, compact, and rounded. Its young foliage is beautifully coloured with ornamental purple, and its summer flowering is long, abundant, and slightly fragrant. This abelia displays flowers much larger than average, almost twice as large as the variety Edward Goucher. They open as deep pink and then lighten to become pale pink in summer. Autumn paints its semi-evergreen foliage with rich bronze to purplish hues and crowns its branches with pretty reddish bracts that persist for a long time. Easy to grow, not very demanding, and attractive for a good part of the year, this unique bush is also adorable in a small hedge or at the centre of a bed.

Abelia x grandiflora PINKY BELLS NOBLE is a very recent American creation, still little known. This compact bush from the Caprifoliaceae family is derived from Abelia x grandiflora, a vigorous, undemanding, and hardy species. Of moderately fast growth, Pinky Bells will reach about 1 m (3.3 ft) in height and 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in spread. Its habit is compact, regular, and well-branched. This abelia offers a long, slightly fragrant flowering that lasts all summer, from July to September-October, when few bushes are in bloom. Its countless small funnel-shaped corollas, 3 cm (1.2 in) wide, with a purple-tinged throat and a pink-white reverse, are gathered in axillary and terminal panicles on reddish stems. As the flowers fade, they give way to pretty compound calyxes in pink, which is very decorative on the autumn foliage. The slender and arching branches bear semi-evergreen glossy foliage. With the first cool nights, the foliage takes on a more or less purple-bronze hue and persists for a long time on the branch.

This modest-sized abelia can be planted in a group with other small bushes as well as individually or in a large pot. You can plant it in a perennial bed as well as in a small free-form or trimmed hedge. It can be chosen as a companion in a flowering hedge with Kolkwitzia amabilis 'Pink Cloud', Deutzia, Syringa microphylla 'Superba', single-flowered bush roses, Choisya Apple Blossom, or even Buddleia alternifolia 'Argentea'.