This long flowering evergreen looks its best just as other flowering shrubs start to fade.

By mid-summer, Abelia x grandiflora will be producing masses of small, fragrant, pink-flushed flowers that will keep going well into October. Fairly hardy, but it prefers a warm location, such as in the shelter of a wall and towards the back of a border.

Abelia x grandiflora has attractive, glossy, deep green leaves which always look healthy. Arching in habit, it will make a twiggy mound about 1.5m high. Any dead or damaged wood can be cut out in spring. It can be trimmed into a neat shape but it naturally wants to be tall and arching. Not a flashy shrub, but one with infinite charm.