Heather’s colour comes at just the right time of the year

Press, 26 April 1979, Page 16

Heather’s colour comes at just the right time of the year

GARDENER’S DIARY

By F

Derrick Rooney

This month’s nor’west weather, though it has done little yet for many deciduous trees, has brought a rainbow of colour to one corner of the new rock garden., where I am grouping, in a raised bed, the survivors of my small collection of callunas, plus a few newcomers. These are miniature and coloured forms of the single species, Calluna vulgaris, the Scottish heather.

Though it is known universally as Scottish heather (pronounced with a round r-r-r), or ling, Calluna vulgaris is not confined to Scotland but is found on moorlands throughout the British Isles, and in Europe as well. It is a monotypic genus (i.e., restricted" to one species), but as might be expected with a plant of such wide distributSon, it has many geographic forms, one or two subspecies, and probably hundreds of cultivars. A typical heather can grow two feet high eventually, but there are a number of ‘’smalls” that rarely exceed half a foot, and it is these that have

most appeal in the rock garden, the best place to grow heathers. They are easy enough to please; all they ask for is a gritty, lime-free soil, preferably with peat added, and freedom from overhead shade. No animal manure; overweight heathers are neither use nor ornament, and a lean diet is prescribed.

The most common of the miniatures is “Foxii Nana,” a plant about which I have never managed to be enthusiastic, despite A. T. Johnson’s tempting description: “A mere pincushion of mosslike verdure.” I prefer

“Velvet Dome,” another mini, about the same size and very well named, because it makes a small mound of soft green foliage with darker tints that reflect the light and change with the inclination -of the sun. It really does look like a mound of velvet.

Even more downy and huddled is “Sister Anne,” which is sometimes elevated to subspecific status as C.v. hirsuta compacts — not to be confused with “Hirsuta Typica,” a big

plant that can grow knee high or higher.

“Sister Anne” has tiny spikes of soft purple flowers in late summer, and at that time its foliage is grey-green. In some soils (happily, mine included) it becomes flushed with purple, pink, and crimson as the days shorten. I doubt if there is a more colourful foliage plant in the rock garden in April. Another brilliant dwarf heather is sold here as “Multicolour,” but in the United States, where it originated, it is more appropriately called “Prairie Fire.” This one is bronze and green in summer, and switches in winter to a mixture of yellow, gold, and fiery red, splashed about the plant in zones of separate colour. This was one of the few coloured heathers that survived the Great Drought of 1977-78, so it obviously has a tough constitution. But it must have an open site; my plant nearly died this summer when it was overgrown by an exuberant cistus. It is necessary to keep

an eye out, too, for branches that are reverting to plain green, and to nip them smartly in the bud.

“Minima” is another good little heather, compressed and conifer-like, but even better is “Minima Smith’s Variety,” an even more compressed form that originated as a witch’s broom on a normal plant. The latter is

not only smaller and more cushiony than plain “Minima,” but is more freeflowering, and in winter, instead of remaining emerald green, becomes rimmed with bronze tones. Most of the coloured heathers have the useful habit of putting on their best clothes for winter, when colour is at a premium. One, as old as Johnny Walker, perhaps, and still

going just as strong, is “Cuprea.” I think selection of propagating material may influence the habit of this heather, because as usually seen it is a tall and sprawling plant, as much as 15in high and a couple of feet across after a few years.

Some alpine specialists offer smaller, tidier plants that take years to get above ankle height, and these are the ones to go for. Or it may well be that the plant often sold as “Cuprea” is not “Cuprea” at all, but an impostor.

Like “Multicolour.” “Cuprea” is strongly drought resistant, and as the foliage is green in summer it is also resistant to sunburn, an important consideration, because in my garden more heathers die from heat prostration than from all other causes put together. For this reason I have given their bed a southerly slope. The name, “Cuprea,” comes from the fiery hue that it assumes in winter, but unlike “Multicolour,” which flashes like a traffic light at the first whiff of autumn, “Cuprea” takes its time about turning. Winter is often well advanced before it shows the first tinge of red, but once red it stays bright red, whatever the weather, until the soft green new growth takes over in spring.

Many of these dwarf heathers are very coniferlike in general appearance and in their effect in the rock garden, and to add to the analogy “Foxii Nana” and “Velvet Dome” flower sparsely, if at all. Another shy bloomer is “Humpty Dumpty,” which I have not grown but which I must have one day, because it is irresistably described as “dumpy hummocks of parsely green.”

“Humpty Dumpty” is not only dumpy" but humpy, so that instead of making a dome, like its relatives, it becomes an irregular cluster of green hummocks — perfect for the rock garden.

One miniature that does flower well is “Nana Compacta,” six inches high and not much wider. In late summer this becomes a mound of purple. Equally free-flowering, also purple, but smaller

still is “Mrs Ronald Gray,” a rock-hugger with a completely prostrate, arching habit.

Also prostrate, but not a miniature, is "Foxhcrtlow Wanderer.” a free-flower-ing sprawler raised at Windlesham, Surrey, at the Foxhollow Nursery, which now has re-estab-lished in New Zealand, at Karapiro. This one spreads freely over a square foot or two, and also flbwers freely, but seldom rises to shin height. Oddly enough, it is not available from Foxhollow N.Z.; the rights to it are held by a large wholesale nurserySeveral other coloured heathers are often Differed by nurseries as suitable for rock gardens, and some of them such as “Golden Feather” and “Blazeaway,” really are most colourful. But they are too big. I like “Winter Chocolate,” though; soft green in summer, it becomes a patchwork of chocolate, bronze, and olive green in winter.

Coloured foliage is of course not restricted to heathers, but is found among their cousins the heaths (members of the genus erica) as well.

Some of these, as a bonus, produce their

flowers in winter in the coldest, bleakest months. But they are another story (or stories).