Canyon Creek abelia is grown as much for its foliage as its flowers. New growth emerges coppery gold, softens to yellow and then green through summer, and warms to bronze with rose highlights in fall. From summer to frost it carries clusters of small, fragrant pinkish-white blooms.

This evergreen to semi-evergreen shrub reaches about four to five feet and fits foundation plantings, informal hedges, and mixed borders. Give it sun to part sun and well-drained soil. It needs only a light shaping in late winter, and pollinators visit it for months.