Abelia Confetti Foundation Planting

Plant Specifications

• The hybrid glossy abelia 'Confetti' is botanically known as cultivar 'Conti', a selection of Abelia x grandiflora. It has a rounded but mounded shape with arching branches that are lined with creamy white and green leaves that blush with rose tones, especially when newly emerging in spring. It is winter hardy to USDA zones 7, 8 and 9, which have chilly but mild winters. This shrub is evergreen in warmer regions but drops some of its foliage in areas with chillier, prolonged winters, such as in zone 7. At maturity, Confetti reaches a height of 2 to 3 feet, with a spread of 4 to 5 feet.

Growing Conditions

• For optimum performance in the landscape, Confetti glossy abelia needs a full to partial sun exposure with no less than 4 to 6 hours of direct sun daily to ensure lush growth, best flowering and leaf coloration. Provide an acidic to neutral soil pH. It grows best if the soil is fertile and moist. It demonstrates some drought tolerance once established and growing in the landscape for two to three years. Mulching around the plants is recommended, as it suppresses weeds, retains moisture, moderates soil temperature extremes in summer and winter and provides trace nutrients to the shrub.

Plant Spacing

• This selection of glossy abelia can be grown in foundation plantings as a single specimen shrub or massed to create sweeping displays of foliage across several plants in clusters or groups. Since Confetti reaches a mature width of 4 to 5 feet, plant this shrub no closer than 28 to 32 inches from other shrubs or the building foundation. This guideline is center-to-center, the distance from the visual counterpoint of the plant outward to the nearby plant edge or building. For a solid, massing effect of plants, this spacing may be decreased to 20 to 24 inches center-to-center, so that no space remains between plants once they have grown to the mature sizes.

  Save initial planting material costs and later problems of disease by not overplanting or spacing young plants of this glossy abelia variety too closely. Plants will grow moderately fast to reach full size within 5 years, with a robust and even form.

Maintenance

• The ornamental highlight of the Confetti glossy abelia is the rosy-blushed variegated foliage, which tends to outshine the small white flowers that appear in summer. Pruning, particularly the formal shearing of this mounded shrub with naturally arching branches, destroys the beauty of the plant. Allow Confetti to become a robust plant with minimal pruning so that the foliage coloration is maximized year round.

  Annual application of a slow-release, balanced granular fertilizer (e.g. 10-10-10) each spring is recommended, particularly in soils that are sand-based. However, the need for fertilizer is lessened if organic mulches are renewed as they decompose around the shrub over the course of its lifetime.