Clever heather
Smart ways to brighten borders
PUT some winter-flowering heathers on your wish list for a wonderful show of colour, whatever the weather.
Their beautiful, bell-shaped flowers covered in frost lift spirits on the drabbest days, especially when set off by dwarf conifers or dogwoods.
Some erica varieties flower right through from January to April, just when it is most needed.
Erica carnea, also known as alpine heath, is a great starting point. There is a wonderful choice of varieties with flowers in red, pink, purple and white.
Many have attractive foliage too, offering bold splashes of gold, bronze, orange, red and silver. Being evergreen, you get year-round interest and new growth in spring is often of a contrasting colour, such as pink.
They vary in habit from patchwork carpets to striking upright shrubs but are all hardy and trouble free.
To get a quick ground cover, space plants 30cm apart. For distinct mounds, plant twice this distance.
Starlet
Quick to establish and easy to maintain, there is no excuse for looking out during the next few months at bare borders, boring paving or mud.
Most prefer a well-drained acidic soil. Heavy, limy or alkaline soil is a sure way of killing them, so if this is the case, build raised beds and fill with ericaceous compost or plant in tubs.
Heathers make excellent container plants. As they have very shallow root systems, plant in a wide container.
Winter-flowering heathers can also be grown in hanging baskets and look good with small flowered cyclamen, brightly variegated ivy and pansies.
For maximum impact look out for flowering varieties such as December red, which opens pink and deepens to purplish pink. White- flowered golden starlet has yellow summer foliage, which turns lime in winter.
King George bears masses of deep mauve flowers and is one of the earliest to bloom in winter, while Eileen Porter flowers from October to April.
For foliage, try Ann Sparkes. You get a splash of gold with leaves turning crimson in cold weather. And golden starlet has lime- green leaves, contrasting with snowy-white winter blooms, which go yellow in summer.
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