Persisting colorful calyces of some abelias considered one of their attributes. Try searching abelia pruning or similar on the internet to see if something you can use pops up. There are also books published on pruning garden plants, I have a whole collection myself - most of them of comparatively recent vintage. Your local public library, unless tiny is bound to have at least a few pruning books.

...full sun up to half shade; shade tolerance is greater than the literature indicates; plants under red maples made a respectable show although less dense and with decreased flowering compared to plants in full sun. Dirr, Manual of Woody Landscape Plants. I'd have to consider under red maples a pretty tough planting location regardless of the amount of sunlight.....no doubt lack of moisture and nutrients from root competition would play a factor as well. 4-6 hours of direct sunlight without the influence of a red maple canopy should be more than adequate. I think 'Kaleidoscope' could work well in the location you describe, with adequate watering. Heat and humidity do not appear to be a limiting factor for this plant, as many of the popular cultivars, including several of the variegated forms, were developed in nurseries located in the south (Alabama and NC).

Thanks

Mary, I linked to abelia and got some info but am having trouble putting the link here(my computer) What you can do is go to "my page" and there is a search engine in the right upperhand corner. type in abelia, or any thing else you're looking for and all garden web info on that subject will come up. You'll have to scroll down abit to see anything. Try typing in your user name. I was amazed at how much i had posted. vickie