HEATHER FORECAST
WINTER FLOWERING HEATHERS ARE EASY TO GROW, AND ON A FROSTY MORNING THEIR COLOURS WILL TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY
THERE was a time back in the 1970s when dwarf conifers and heathers seemed the answer to every gardener’s prayer – they are evergreen, they look good all year round and need little in the way of maintenance. And, well, that’s it.
As a result of this unchanging aspect, they fell out of favour.
I can’t say I was sorry to see them go. As a garden feature, they are not exactly top of the league.
However, at this time of year heathers are hugely useful.
Added to which, most of the winter- flowering heathers (varieties of Erica carnea and E. x darleyensis) are tolerant of chalky or alkaline soil, which is not something you can say for most of their relatives, which are happiest in acid ground.
Seek them out in the local nursery or garden centre now and plant them either at the front of beds and borders where there is a gap that could do with filling, or else in tubs or window boxes where they can be treated as temporary residents and replaced in spring when they go out of flower.
They will tolerate a moderate amount of shade but are happiest in full sun and well-drained soil that has been enriched with a little organic matter, which helps to bring it up to the moisture retentive capacity of their native peaty earth.
In beds and borders they can be lightly clipped once the blooms have faded. This will encourage them to remain thick and lustrous, and to produce shoots that will flower again next winter.
There are lots of varieties to choose from, such as ‘Springwood White’, ‘Springwood Pink’ and the deeper pink ‘King George’. You’ll be surprised at their brilliance under the winter sun.
Plant them with 6in or 8in between them and fill the gaps with spring-flowering crocuses, dwarf irises or miniature narcissi such as ‘Tete-a-Tete’, ‘Little Witch’ and ‘Jenny’.
Come summer, when their flowers have faded, they will slip into the shadows until autumn returns and they take their place in the spotlight once more.