2017 ASHS Annual Conference

Abelia has great potential as a cut flower/foliage crop; stems have glossy green or variegated foliage with terminal clusters of small fragrant flowers. Flowers are white, pink or purple. Sepals of abelia last for many months, and vary in color from green to bronze to pink, adding to the ornamental value and options for cut flower use. Eleven genotypes of Abelia were tested for their vase life: A. chinensis, four hybrid lines, one backcross, three releases of the University of Georgia abelia breeding program (‘Cloud 99’, ‘Lavender Mist’ and ‘Raspberry Profusion’) and the commercial cultivar ‘Francis Mason’. Ten shoots of each genotype were cut from field-grown plants, transported dry and trimmed to 60 cm in length. Shoots were placed in individual containers with distilled water in a growth chamber at 20 °C, 24-hours photoperiod, and humidity of 60 - 70%. The deionized water was changed and the shoots were cut 5 mm at the base every three days. Fresh weight was determined every other day and chlorophyll content was measured every three days using a hand chlorophyll meter. The vase life was calculated as the number of days until leaf senescence (yellowing or abscission) was observed. The vase life of abelia was 55 days, except for the backcross genotype and ‘Cloud 99’, which had a vase life of 24 and 22 days respectively. There were not significant differences in weight over time by genotype, with the exception of one hybrid line that lost 30% of its weight. The chlorophyll content significantly increased in all the genotypes over time. The major increase was in the variegated cultivar ‘Francis Mason’ with an increase in chlorophyll content of 377%.