Bushy, medium-sized, erect shrub growing to an average height of 1.6m, but old specimens may reach up to 1.8m tall; 1-1.5m broad. The flowers are medium to dark pink (darker pink than ‘Tresco’ lighter than ‘Adonis’), tubular, 15mm long, 3mm diameter; umbellately arranged (3, mainly 4 flowered), on very short (3mm) lateral branches arising from the main stem, arranged in dense, whorled, pseudo-racemes below the ends of flowering branches. (Normally 3, occasionally 4 verticels per synflorescence)
The external morphology of the Dresden form is marginally different from the other Erica verticillata forms. The flowers are smaller and more congested, verticels fewer; non-flowering lateral branches are less ordered, normally arranged in single whorls or dispersed up the main stems and only a few are arranged in whorls of three (3-5) on the upper third of the stems.
Origins: This specimen comes from a small market garden nursery, Heidegartnerei Grunberg in Dresden, specializing in Erica. It is recorded at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens with the accession number, 14/2012 and cultivar ‘Dresden’. Herr Hemut Heidl bought it at a market in Berlin many years ago when Dresden was in East Germany. Cuttings were donated by Helmut Heidl GbR Wasserschwenden 3.87452 Altusried / Krugzell.Fax 0049 (0) 8374 – 23435 Web:www.hiedl-gbr.de. Landowner: N/A: Mail: hiedl-gbr@t-online.de. Landowner org: Heidegartnerei Grunberg. Landowner ph: 49 (03523) 71130 ® E.2018:01 registered on 10 April 2018 by Anthony Hitchcock Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens Nursery, Living Collections and Threatened Species Manager
