Heather your nest
Giving fading borders a blast
BREATHE life into your garden with handsome heathers.
These beautiful plants are resilient and survive in exposed areas, needing very little maintenance. Perfect for gardeners pushed for time.
Start by giving the fading patio a bit of moorland magic with a display of Scottish heathers and callunas.
Choose upright varieties and plant four or five in a container of ericaceous compost. Unlike when planting summer bedding, there is no need to give plants room to bush out.
Bud heathers, or Calluna vulgaris, are treated with dyes to give exciting colours such as blue, orange, yellow and rust-red, which pack a punch in patio containers during winter.
For autumn interest, flowering Golden Carpet, with its magenta flowers, is a wonderful choice. Yellow foliage turns a deep orange and red in winter.
An electrifying feature can be created in a border with the fiery shoots of Salix Britzensis. Have it emerging from the golden leafy embers of summer-flowering, ground-hugging calluna varieties Con Brio, Firefly and Robert Chapman.
Bold
Or use winter-flowering heathers, varieties of Erica carnea, in hanging baskets to replace summer bedding.
Combine with small flowered cyclamen, ivy and universal pansies.
Heathers also make great weed suppressors and can add year-round colour to borders. Erica carnea can sort out roadside borders too. They cope with salt spray and a close-knit ground-hugging habit helps with soil erosion – a problem on sloping sites.
Be bold, as the odd heather planted in the middle of a border looks lost. Plant for impact, either arranging in blocks of colour or to create the outlines of a knot-style display.
Heathers thrive in an open position with lots of sun – particularly those with coloured foliage. Soil must be suitable. Use a simple testing kit before making your selection.
If the ph is above 7.5, choose from the lime-tolerant species, such as Erica carnea, Erica x darleyensis and Erica erigena varieties. If the ph is 6.5 or below, go for any type.
To get quick groundcover, space plants about 30cm apart. For distinct mounds, plant twice this distance with soil covered with an 8cm layer of bark chips. This will prevent weeds, keep soil moist and show off heathers to their best advantage.