Abelia is a long-lived drought tolerant shrub that can thrive for fifty years or more. It is a good plant for backyard birds and is useful in a bird-friendly garden. Abelia x grandiflora can be used as a border, a screen, and to attract and feed wildlife. Bees feed on the nectar and gather pollen, birds use this as a plant shelter or nesting plant, a butterflies feed on the nectar.

Abelia x grandiflora is a relatively hardy evergreen shrub that grows to 6 1/2 feet tall on average, but can grow to nearly 8 feet tall. Once established it thrives with very little maintenance. It responds well to trimming and can be grown to retain an arching branch form or trimmed more severely with a mechanical pruner to make it into a wall. Left on its on it creates a semi-open form - more open than a confer while denser than most perennials.The relative openness of the form is what makes it both a good privacy screen and good nesting and shelter habitat. It can be used as an accent plant or as a privacy border. Occasional trimming will help maintain its use as a privacy border.

Abelia x grandiflora, larger than other cultivars, is hardy in Zone 7, Zone 8, and Zone 9. Other species can be grown in Zones 10 and 11.

Abelia is a "host" plant for a truly lovely moth, active during the day, named the hummingbird clearwing, Hemaris thysbe. Hummingbird clearwing occupies a broad range in the United States. Its habitat includes cultivated gardens as well as meadows and second-growth forests.

Our 2023 nectar plant database showed that seventeen butterflies will nectar on Abelia.