After YEARS of trying unsuccessfully to grow Miss Huff lantana and Homestead Purple verbena on a slope, we gave up and planted 5 Edward Goucher Abelia on the bottom 2/3rds of it with a row of cleyera at the top. That was last year. This year we said "what the heck" and planted a few small Miss Huffs and Homestead Purple among the shrubs--and lo and behold some of them have grown--and much more than we ever expected.

The problem we have now you can see in the attached picture: 2 of the Miss Huffs are drowning the one-year-old abelia and the cleyera above it. We're afraid to try to move the Miss Huffs since every time we've moved one it has died. Would it be better to take the abelia out even though I'm not sure where to put it?

Our main goal for this slope was just to get it covered with something to stabilize it--and if we could attract birds, bees, and butterflies at the same time, all the better. So Miss Huff all over it was my first choice.

Does anyone know if abelia can stand wet feet? If we moved them to another slope, they would fairly wet during the winter and spring. There are wax myrtles in that spot right now but they are getting way too big and we're wondering if we'll have to cut them down.