Heather of the Month

Relatively large, scented white flowers; the red-tinged ovary is densely hirsute, as are the spurs of the anthers which yield pollen; IV-V; The young shoots are discoloured, appearing bright yellow-green.

On 20 March 2011, Kurt Kramer pollinated a putative tetraploid clone of Erica × veitchii with pollen from several different (both white- and lilac-flowered) putative tetraploid clones of Erica australis. About 50 seedlings were raised and after growing on for several years, the 15 best clones were retained for further trial. These were grown outside in Kramer’s nursery at Edewecht, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony), in northwestern Germany. In 2017, 13 of the clones were still growing, having survived temperatures as low as -13°C (January 2016). Only clone 8 was selected for further propagation, distribution and naming by Kurt Kramer.

Named ‘New Horizon’ because Kurt Kramer sees this clone and his breeding work as the foundation of new breeding efforts in Erica combining three different species

Magenta (H14) flowers, I–IV; gold-bronze foliage throughout the year; height 30cm; spread 50cm.

A sport from ‘Kramers Rote‘, found at Pépinières Roue-Cadiou (Plouigneau, France).

Shell-pink (H16) flowers which darken, XII–V, small; dull green foliage; height 10–15cm; spread 26–30cm.

An older cultivar listed by T. & J. Backhouse (York) by 1821.

Named from pallidus = pale. Originally published as var. pallida. It is unlikely that Backhouse’s original clone is the same as the present one.

Lilac-pink (H11) flowers, darkening to heliotrope (H12), XII–V; dark green foliage, the young shoots with pink tips in spring; height 31–45cm; spread 46–60cm.

A seedling found at Furzey Gardens (Minstead, Lyndhurst, Hampshire, England) by Captain Dalrymple; introduced by John F. Letts (Windlesham, Surrey) by 1963.

Named after the garden in which it originated.

White and beetroot (H9) flowers, some striped, often found on the same stem. Can often be late flowering, as is mine this year.

No history has been traced; as Menziesia polifolia variicolor, it was cultivated by Waterer as early as 1874.

Named from bicolor = two-coloured.

Deep pink (H8) flowers, VII–X, very abundant; dark green foliage; height 31–45cm; spread 61–75cm. Flower colour is deeper than ‘St Keverne’ but paler than ‘Mrs D. F. Maxwell’.

Chance seedling, most likely from ‘Mrs. D.F. Maxwell’; found by G. Underwood at Hookstone Green Nursery (West End, Woking, Surrey, England); introduced by Underwood Bros, about 1946.

Named after the Underwoods’ nursery, and the flower colour.

Flowers in terminal umbel; VIII-X; corolla white; ovary pale green, cylindrical, with uneven covering (mainly around upper part) of short hairs; anthers pale tan, with prominent awns; nectary ring green; habit bushy, low-growing heather, with pronounced tendency to produce “discoloured” (yellow) branchlets that gradually turn green; retains yellow (dis)colouring into late summer; long cilia (hairs) on margins of leaves and sepals usually not gland-tipped.

This is only the second clone of Praeger’s heath known to have white flowers (see Heathers 9: 76 (2012); Ericultura 163: 14 (2011)).

The origin of this clone is not known. It has been grown in Connemara by Susie and Alan Kay from material given to Susie Kay by Dr John Griffiths, and in Norfolk by Dr E. C. Nelson.

® DME 2018-04 registered on 26 August 2018 by Susie Kay.

Flowers rose-pink (H7) to heliotrope (H12) in terminal racemes, 20–30 per cluster; IV:VI and often also IX;XI; foliage dark green almost spirally arranged or in disarticulated whorls of 3 or 4; habit upright; height 30cm; spread 30cm.

Another (nursery code 04-59-6) of the seedlings raised by Kurt Kramer in 2004 from unnamed “pink” seedling of Erica manipuliflora deliberately pollinated by an unnamed “crimson” seedling of Erica spiculifolia.

This name is chosen as the German equivalent of carillon, a musical instrument comprising a collection of at least 23 bells.

® DME 2018–05: Registered 29 September 2018, by E C Nelson, England.

See The June 2019 RHS publication The Plantsman for more details.

Outstanding mid-season plant, although it will continue flowering until the frosts. One of a number of seedlings found at Bearsden, Glasgow, Scotland, by William Buchanan.

Seedling; said to have originated before 1939 at Veitch’s Nursery near Brockhill, Devon, England, family home of the Bayne-Powell family; named by David McClintock in 1994 by which time its hardiness was well established; and introduced by Denbeigh Heather Nurseries (Creeting St Mary, Ipswich).

Registered 29 October 1994: David McClintock, Piatt, Kent.

Named after the Bayne-Powell family home in Devon, where this was found.