GARDENS : LIVING COLOR

Visit John Catlin’s La Canada Flintridge garden, and a profusion of bell-like flowers and maple-leaf-shaped foliage greets the eye. Abutilons grow everywhere--over the canes in a bamboo grove, along fences and brick walls and in the spaces of an old beach umbrella frame.

“They are very versatile plants,” says Catlin, a retired landscape designer who began hybridizing abutilons as a hobbyist 30 years ago. The plants thrive in sun or shade (something very few plants can do) and they bloom for a long time, so it’s surprising that abutilons aren’t found in more gardens. But thanks to Catlin’s pioneering--and award-winning--work, that is slowly changing.

Some abutilons are sturdy free-standing shrubs; others, more delicate, resemble vines. Out of flower, they make respectable background plants; in flower, they become spectacular stars. From mid-winter to mid-spring, they’re thick with blossoms in nearly every color--creamy white, bright red, burgundy, soft pink, orange, apricot, yellow, even a rare blue.

Most of the abutilons in Catlin’s garden are his own hybrids of species native to South America. They need regular water but, because they are deep-rooted, can survive periods of drought. They also are hardy enough to tolerate a winter frost, blooming only slightly behind schedule. Not bad for what Catlin calls “the perfect chain-link-fence covering.”