PlantFiles: Abutilon, Flowering Maple
Abutilon 'Kathy Bells'

Most Abutilons are evergreen unless they get too cold in winter then they become deciduous only to regrow their leaves when it warms up. Most will tolerate temps down to 20 degrees with no damage to stems and even to 15 degrees though they do suffer total leaf loss. Some have fuzzy leaf undersides, which really helps keep bugs off specifically white fly which seems to love these. So try to pick the fuzzy leafed ones to help make them bug resistant. Snails and slugs also feast upon their leaves with great gusto quickly making them most unattractive.

These will flower almost continuously unless the weather turns too cold. Hummingbirds are frequent visitors and you can quickly establish a hummingbird garden if you plant a few in various locations.

Most will become somewhat messy looking, overgrown and very tall bush unless you do judicious pruning. I find with constant tweaking, you can prune one into a single trunk tree that is well branched and very attractive with all its many and frequent appearing flowers. They also will take to container growing if you have a big enough one and on occasion if you root prune to repot it in new soil.

I have 2 that are over 20 years old with very thick trunks. I routinely prune them severely in early spring and by summer's end they have regrown and are happily feeding a thrilled assortment of hummers.