2019 ASHS Annual Conference

An interspecific cross between the cultivar A. 'Edward Goucher' and Abelia chinensis was made in Griffin, Georgia in 1998. Eleven seedlings were obtained from this cross and were planted in Griffin in 1999. Two patented cultivars, ‘Raspberry Profusion’ and ‘Lavender Mist’ were selected from among these seedlings. A third seedling, to be named 'Rosy Charm' (originally labeled 99-6-7), was vegetatively propagated and evaluated with multiple replications in Griffin (cold hardiness zone 8a) since 2002 and in Blairsville GA (cold hardiness zone 7a) since 2003. 'Rosy Charm' has many outstanding qualities and is being released as a new cultivar. This plant has a spreading, upright growth habit. Flowers are purple and occur in compound panicles, mostly terminal, ranging from 18 to 30 cm long and 6 to 10 cm wide. The subpanicles are 7 to 9 cm long and 5 to 6 cm wide. The number of individual flowers per inflorescence is 250 to 750. Sepals are red-purple, or pink. The most distinctive quality of 'Rosy Charm' is the heavy and continuous display of pink/purple flowers and sepals from May through September. Average height and width of 12-year-old unpruned plants in Griffin was 256 cm and 279 cm, respectively. Laboratory freeze tests showed a mid-winter cold hardiness of -21 C. Late spring freezes frequently cause shoot tip burning or die-back on abelia cultivars in Griffin. 'Rosy Charm' rarely has any late spring freeze damage in Griffin, but minor damage has occurred some years on replicates in Blairsville.