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Robert Nyman
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Robert Nyman
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Heather's been having a bit of a bad time of it lately apparently, no, I'm not talking about EastEnders. The heather I'm referring to is the bonny purple heather of the Scottish highlands and the moorlands of England and Wales.
Since the seventies and eighties sales of heather plants have dropped dramatically as it has fallen rapidly out of fashion, probably because it was associated with rather gloomy conifer gardens. The heather growers were in despair and in danger of going out of business. This year, they and the Heather Society (www.heathersociety.org.uk ) decided to do something to revamp their image.
They approached garden designers Claire Bryant and Jackie Edwards to come up with some fresh ideas. The result was a small garden called 'Back to Front' which was awarded a Silver-Gilt medal and has been wowing the visitors.
They have used heathers in all sorts of clever new ways to show the versatility of this diverse family of plants. There are two trendy vertical panels using lovely fresh green Erica carnea 'Foxhollow', which has lavender flowers and goes slightly bronze in winter. It requires good irrigation and regular trimming to keep it flat. Heather also lends itself surprisingly well to hedging and topiary. Here, Erica erigena is used in containers, clipped into soft pyramids and as a ball in the bed, making a welcome change from the ubiquitous Box.
There's a colourful border of summer flowering Daboecia varieties along the front of the garden and flat growing, greyish leaved Calluna vulgaris 'White Lawn' spreads over the stoney bike parking area. The more you look, the more heathers you see and yet at first glance it's the last plant you would think of. Most of the heathers they've used are lime tolerant and of course, they are evergreen and low maintenance.
The future of heathers could be looking a lot more rosy if gardeners try some of these great planting ideas - you'll have to watch EastEnders to find out about Ms Trott.
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